He announced a “significant degradation” of political dialogue and practical cooperation between Moscow and Seoul. However, with the current government of South Korea, according to Rudenko, the countries managed to keep relations “from complete collapse.”
The head of the Foreign Ministry of the aggressor country also spoke about the likelihood of South Korea joining the Prioritized Ukraine Requirements List (PURL) program.
“We are consistently conveying to the South Korean side through various channels Russia’s principled position on the inadmissibility of the Republic of Korea’s participation in the direct and indirect pumping of lethal weapons into the Kyiv regime, including within the framework of the PURL initiative. Otherwise, bilateral relations between Russia and the Republic of Korea could be seriously damaged, and we will be forced to take retaliatory measures. I hope that we will not have to take such steps,” Rudenko said.
He did not specify exactly what “measures” and “steps” he was talking about.
Previously, representatives of the South Korean Foreign Ministry stated that since the beginning of the full-scale Russian invasion of Ukraine in 2022, Seoul has been transferring only non-combat and humanitarian aid to Kyiv, but in February the media, in particular Yonhap, wrote that the South Korean government is considering the possibility of joining the PURL initiative.
Context
About the launch of PURL NATO reported 4 August 2025. As part of this initiative, Ukraine will receive American weapons funded by European allies and Canada. How The Alliance explained that the cost of each aid package is about $500 million.
There is no clear amount of funds that countries have already allocated for the purchase of weapons under PURL in open sources. However, in September, Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky reported that six countries had already allocated more than $2 billion through the initiative. Later, in December, the head of state said that in 2026 he was counting on arms packages under this program worth $15–16 billion.
