One of Wednesday’s Ramstein-format goals is to win broader member support for NATO’s plan to buy US weapons for Ukraine, as hinted by Secretary General Mark Rutte in his opening address.

Rutte said Ukraine will top the agenda of the meetings throughout the day, alongside the need to bolster NATO defense against drone threats following recent airspace violations by Russian drones and warplanes.

“And today, we will touch on… what happened just recently – the drones. How to make sure that we can do even more to protect NATO against also these new developments. So this will be an important day,” Rutte said.

Rutte added that there will also be a NATO-Ukraine Council, with Ukrainian Defense Minister Denys Shmyhal and the EU’s top diplomat Kaja Kallas in attendance.

Then would come the Ukraine Defence Contact Group – commonly known as the Ramstein format meeting – headed by German Defense Minister Boris Pistorius and his British counterpart, John Healey.

Rutte said the Prioritized Ukraine Requirements List (PURL), a deal struck in July 2025 when NATO members agreed that European allies would buy US weapons and funnel them to Ukraine, is among items on the agenda.

“And one of the issues we’ll be discussing is this new program, which we launched only in August, the program where the United States is again delivering essential, lethal and non-lethal military support to Ukraine, paid for by Allies, already 2 billion committed,” Rutte said.

“And I have every reason to assume today that many other countries will sign up.”

According to a recent report by the Kiel Institute, despite the PURL deal, weapon aid to Ukraine dropped significantly, by over 50%, over the summer.

Recent Russian strikes against Ukraine’s energy grid have once again highlighted the gap in air defense, with US Patriot systems – the most effective of those currently fielded by Ukraine – continuing to be in short supply.

timing and scale of deliveries remain uncertain, meaning US supplies remain a lifeline for Ukrainian defenses at present.