The Observer Network by Nguyen Jaki
This week's EU summit continues to focus on the Russia-Ukraine conflict. According to reports by "Ukraine Pravda" and Russian Sputnik News Agency on the 25th, when Ukraine President Zelensky attended the European Council summit on Thursday (23rd), he proposed to European allies to adjust the delivery order of the US "Patriot" air defense missile system, allowing Ukraine to give priority to obtaining the weapon and then "return" or "replace" it in the future.
According to a comprehensive report by the Interfax news agency of Ukraine, in his speech that day, Zelensky called on European countries to increase assistance to Ukraine on air defense issues. Later, he mentioned the "Patriot" air defense missile system.
He said,"The current situation involves many complex details, and we have communicated with the U.S. government and defense companies about the Patriot system. We have paid for these systems and missiles, the EU is also paying, and supplies still have to wait in line. Some countries are ahead of us, and others already have patriot systems. But fortunately, these countries don't need to use the system the way we do, so we propose to adjust the order of supply."
Zelensky emphasized that Ukraine urgently needs the "Patriot" system now and is willing to return or replace the previously received systems when it is Ukraine's turn to receive them in the original order. "If we can get these systems from Europe now, The help to us will be huge."
In addition, Zelensky also called on partners to focus on promoting the "Ukrainian Priority List" (PURL) program in November.
Three months ago, Trump announced that the United States and NATO had reached an agreement whereby NATO countries would fully fund the purchase of weapons from the United States, and NATO would then "transfer" these weapons to Ukraine, known as the PURL plan.
Since then, several European countries have pledged to provide funding for the PURL program, including Denmark with approximately $90 million, Sweden with $275 billion, Norway with approximately $135 billion, the Netherlands with $599 million for the first batch of aid, and Germany with $500 million.
When talking about the PURL plan, Zelensky said,"I urge all parties to speed up the plan, and I also call on countries that have not yet joined the plan to participate as soon as possible. The PURL plan will not only help Ukraine, but will also help safeguard U.S. interests in Europe and prove to the United States that Europe is contributing to this."
On October 23, 2025 local time, in Brussels, Belgium, Ukraine President Zelensky attended a press conference at the European Council Summit.Eastern IC
According to U.S. media reports, Zelensky told reporters in Kiev last week that the Ukrainian side was preparing to sign an agreement with U.S. defense companies to purchase 25 Patriot air defense missile systems to enhance the capacity of the Ukrainian military to resist Russian airstrikes.
It is reported that these systems may be delivered in batches on an annual basis. Zelensky told reporters that since some countries have signed ordering agreements before, Ukraine needs to wait in line and cannot receive all systems at one time. "The quantity received will be different every year."
Zelensky also added that if relevant countries are willing, the United States can adjust the order of supply. He proposed that some European countries could give priority to delivering the Patriot system to Ukraine or deploy their existing systems to Ukraine.
"If all parties work together and show good will, the White House can specifically help us so that we can accept American systems that European countries have deployed," he said.
Each "Patriot" system costs about US$1 billion, and Ukraine lacks financial resources. The Ukraine government hopes to obtain funds from the "140 billion euro war compensation loan" being reviewed by EU countries. The loan will be backed by frozen Russian assets, but the plan has not yet been finalized.
“Of course, we need to explore other financing channels.At present, we have signed 28 bilateral security agreements with many countries, and the current task is to implement funding and pay advance payments, and with the framework of these agreements, we can fully this goal,” Zelensky added.
Earlier this month, leaders of France, the United Kingdom, Germany and other European countries and the European Union jointly announced that they were formulating plans to use frozen Russian assets of up to US $163 billion to support Ukraine.
According to Reuters, this issue was also discussed at the EU summit on 23rd. But there are obvious differences between the two sides on how to use these Russian assets: some European countries require these funds to be used mainly to buy European-made weapons; However, Ukraine firmly opposes imposing restrictions and demands autonomy in the use of funds.
Reports said that Ukraine is urging European countries not to restrict its use of this huge Russian state asset. Uzbekistan argues that they need the funds to buy non-European weapons from countries such as the United States, while repairing the war damage caused by Russian attacks and compensating victims.
A senior official in Zelenskyy's government told Reuters that Ukraine needs to get those funds by the end of the year and have autonomy in how they are spent. According to Reuters, this is the first time that Uzbekistan has publicly elaborated on its position.
“Ukraine’s position is that any conditionality will undermine the principle of justice,” said Irina Mudra, chief legal adviser to the Zelensky government, “who decides how to respond to their most pressing needs of defense, restoration and compensation must be the victim, not the donor or partner.”
Mudra said that Ukraine supports cooperation with the European defense industry and is finalizing deals with the largest industrial companies in Europe.
But she said at the same time, “We insist on the autonomy of deciding how to allocate resources between the defence.If European countries don’t have enough defence capacity, then we must have the possibility of buying weapons from other countries.”
Russia accused the EU of illegally seizing Russian assets and warned of retaliation.
In August this year, Fadeyev, deputy director of the Information and Information Department of the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, said that Russia had noticed that the European Commission had used the proceeds from freezing the assets of the Russian central bank to allocate a new batch of financial assistance to the Ukraine government, which was an escalation of Western economic aggression against Russia in its mixed war.
Fateyev responded that the West was trying to formulate new false claims to seize Russian assets or its management gains, but that could not change the criminal nature of its intentions. Russian President Vladimir Putin made a clear legal qualification for this behavior in the West, which is “robbing.”
Russian President Vladimir Putin said last month that the "smarter" government opposed the seizure of Russian assets because "they understand that this move will fundamentally undermine all principles of international economic activity and, undoubtedly, the international financial system".