Pentagon considers diverting Ukraine military aid to the Middle East

The Pentagon is considering whether to divert weapons intended for Ukraine to the Middle East as the war in Iran depletes some of the U.S. military’s most critical munitions, according to three people familiar with the matter.

Although a final decision to redirect the equipment has not yet been made, the shift would highlight the growing trade-offs required to sustain the U.S. war against Iran, where U.S. Central Command has hit more than 9,000 targets in just under four weeks of fighting.

The weapons that could be diverted away from Ukraine include air defense interceptor missiles, ordered through a NATO program launched last year in which partner countries buy U.S. arms for Kyiv, the three people said, speaking on the condition of anonymity to describe the Pentagon’s sensitive deliberations.

The Prioritized Ukraine Requirements List (PURL) initiative has ensured a flow of select military equipment to Kyiv even as the Trump administration has cut off most of the Pentagon’s direct security assistance.

In a statement, a Pentagon spokesperson said the Defense Department would “ensure that U.S. forces and those of our allies and partners have what they need to fight and win” but declined to otherwise comment.

Asked about The Washington Post’s reporting on Thursday, NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte did not address whether the military alliance is aware of or concerned about a potential rerouting of U.S. equipment. “This vital U.S. equipment for Ukraine, including interceptors, is continuing to flow,” Rutte told a news conference.

Since last summer, he added, the initiative has supplied about 75% of the missiles for Ukraine’s Patriot batteries and nearly all of the ammunition used in its other air defense systems.

In response to questions, President Donald Trump did not say directly whether he might divert some munitions from Ukraine, but he acknowledged that “we do that all the time.”

“We have them in other countries, like in Germany and all over Europe,” Trump told reporters Thursday. “Sometimes we take from one and we use for another.”

Kyiv’s chief European backers have taken the lead on funding and arming Ukrainian forces since Trump took office. The PURL initiative, brokered last year by NATO, offered a workaround for Ukraine to keep getting U.S. weaponry, so long as the Europeans pay the bill. The deal provided Trump a political win and a way for NATO to quell fears that Kyiv could be left exposed by the administration’s ambition for a peace deal with Russia.

European nations now provide the bulk of military support to Kyiv, including direct provisions separate from NATO. But PURL supplies Ukraine with key U.S. equipment, including high-end munitions and scarce air defense interceptors. Countries have committed about $4 billion for Ukraine through the program, according to a U.S. official.

Since the U.S. and Israel launched their attack on Iran on Feb. 28, European capitals have become concerned that Washington is rapidly using up its existing munitions, a pace of fire that could delay their own orders and disrupt deliveries of U.S. systems to Ukraine under PURL, two European diplomats said, speaking on the condition of anonymity to describe their private concerns.

“They are really burning through munitions, so there are questions now about how much they will keep providing through the deal,” one of the diplomats said.

A European official said that any U.S. decision to divert systems would only affect the next deliveries to Ukraine, after the coming month or two, because “there are things already in the pipeline.”

Olga Stefanishyna, Ukraine’s ambassador to the United States, said in a statement that Kyiv was keeping partners apprised of its needs, including on air defense, but understood the “period of considerable uncertainty.” She said that “any disruptions at the outset of recent operations in the Middle East have been mitigated.”

Among the most in-demand munitions are high-end air defense interceptors, including the Patriot and Terminal High Altitude Area Defense, or THAAD, systems. The U.S. military has redirected such missiles from other parts of the world, including Europe and East Asia, to U.S. Central Command — which is responsible for U.S. operations in the Middle East — bolstering its defenses against Iranian drone and ballistic missile counterattacks.

These assets are also among the most coveted by Ukraine, which faces a continual barrage of Russian strikes on its cities and infrastructure. One of the people familiar with the Pentagon’s internal calculations said that PURL deliveries were likely to continue but that future packages may be missing air defense capabilities, as the U.S. seeks to replenish its stocks and those of allies in the Persian Gulf.

“The policy debate is how much you give to Ukraine,” a second person said. “This is a real live discussion.”

It was not clear whether U.S. shipments would be delayed and fulfilled later or entirely diverted. The Pentagon can redirect such deliveries in the case of an urgent military need but would need to notify lawmakers, the U.S. official said.

The Pentagon has sought to rapidly increase production of key munitions following the war in Iran but is constrained by the U.S. defense industry’s limited ability to surge in times of crisis. The Trump administration is preparing a supplemental defense budget request for Congress that the Defense Department initially proposed be over $200 billion, The Post has reported.

At NATO, Rutte said arms production was lagging behind the pace of global conflict even before the U.S. attacks on Iran. “We also know that in the Middle East, a lot of stockpiles are being used. … We have to produce more,” he said.

A diversion of U.S. equipment from Ukraine could pile more pressure on Europeans: The Trump administration has tasked NATO allies with arming Kyiv and recently pressed them to deploy assets to help reopen the Strait of Hormuz, a vital maritime pathway for global oil and gas shipments.

In January, Congress passed $400 million in additional long-term weapons aid to Ukraine, funding a separate program that the Pentagon intended to cut. The Ukraine Security Assistance Initiative (USAI) contracts U.S. firms to build weapons that are delivered directly to Kyiv, though the orders can sometimes take years to fulfill.

According to a notice that the Pentagon sent to Congress, reviewed by The Post, the Defense Department has used some of the European PURL money for other capabilities that lawmakers had intended to be paid for by American funding through USAI.

It remained unclear, the U.S. official said, whether the Pentagon was using the PURL funding in addition to, or instead of, the money Congress had already passed to deliver such weaponry.

Separately, the Pentagon notified Congress on Monday that it intended to divert about $750 million in funding provided by NATO countries through the PURL program to restock the U.S. military’s own inventories, rather than to send additional assistance to Ukraine, according to two U.S. officials.

The first official said it was unclear whether European countries providing their funds for the initiative to bolster Ukraine understood how the money was being spent.

European countries such as Germany and the Netherlands have pledged financing through PURL, while other nations such as France have preferred to spend on European rather than U.S. weapons systems.

Washington has not stopped Patriot deliveries, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy told Reuters in an interview published Wednesday. Zelenskyy also said, however, that the U.S. was refusing to sign an agreement to provide postwar security guarantees to Ukraine, unless Kyiv surrenders to a key Kremlin demand and cedes all of its eastern Donbas region to Russia.

Zelenskyy said that while he understood the “subtleties” of Washington’s position, “the Middle East definitely has an impact on President Trump, and I think on his next steps.”

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• Michael Birnbaum and David Stern contributed.