“If the aim is to keep Ukraine in the fight, you need to keep the criteria open,” said a senior EU diplomat.
They claim that attaching a “Buy European clause” would prevent Kyiv from accessing much-needed weapons such as the Patriot missile defense system that are only produced in the U.S.
“I hope that they can buy more and more weapons from Europe but we know that we don’t have all those capabilities and weapons in Europe that they need. So it’s reality that they also must be allowed to buy from the U.S., if needed,” Finnish Prime Minister Petteri Orpo said in an interview with POLITICO.
Divisions on this issue emerged last week during a dinner of EU defense ministers, according to an EU official.
Former Lithuanian Defense Minister Dovilė Šakalienė ― who stepped down on Wednesday over disagreements with the country’s prime minister on the defense budget ― supported opening the Ukraine loan to U.S equipment in an interview with POLITICO.
“If we can use the reparation loan to fund what Ukraine needs the most, this is great, and it can be great if it could be used to cover the most urgent needs of Ukraine, including the weapon systems made by United States.”
She referred to a NATO initiative ― the Prioritized Ukraine Requirements List ― that envisages the U.S. selling weapons to Kyiv provided that European allies pay for them.
Tim Ross contributed to this report.