According to Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, Australia is prepared to give Ukraine a new military package worth $73.5 million, just as the United States encourages allies to double army supply for its fight against Russia; this package will include 70 armored vehicles.
“This additional aid will truly make a difference, assisting the Ukrainian people who continue to display outstanding bravery in the face of Russian illegality”. At a Monday press conference in Canberra, Albanese declared, “We are not at war”.
According to Presstv and other News agencies, the set will consist of 28 M113 armored vehicles, 14 vehicles for special operations, 28 medium trucks, and 14 trailers.
read more: US called on allies to duble weapons supply to Ukraine
The prime minister insisted that the brief rebellion by a paramilitary group that had been fighting alongside Russian forces in Ukraine on Saturday was not the reason for the package.
To present it to cabinet this morning, we have been working on this proposal for a while, Albanese said.
According to reports, tensions between Sergei Shoigu, Russia’s defense minister, and Yevgeny Prigozhin, the leader of the Wagner paramilitary group, led to the mutiny. Alexander Lukashenko, the president of Belarus, mediated a deal that put an end to the scandal.
Additionally, Albanese declared that Australia would extend duty-free access for imports from Ukraine for an additional 12 months in an effort to support trade and the economy in Kyiv.
Australia has contributed a total of A$790 million to Ukraine since the war started in February 2022, including A$610 million in military aid.
Australia is among the top non-NATO donors to the US-led effort to support Ukraine. Numerous Bushmaster armored vehicles and other military supplies, including assistance, have been delivered to Kyiv.
On February 24, 2022, Russia launched what it referred to as a “special military operation” in Ukraine. This was done as a national security measure against the NATO military alliance, which is led by the US, and to defend the Russian-speaking population of eastern Ukraine against Kyiv’s hostile attacks.
Since then, despite repeated warnings from Moscow that Western military support for Kyiv will only prolong the war, the US and its Western allies have spent tens of billions of dollars on arming Ukraine.
Even after the Wagner Group’s armed uprising, Russia is still making gains against Ukraine even as Kiev’s supporters keep pouring billions of dollars in military aid into the country.
According to Alexander Savchuk, a spokesman for the Battlegroup Center, Russian forces bombarded Ukrainian positions with artillery fire and airstrikes on Monday, causing significant casualties among the Ukrainian forces.
Nearly 30 Ukrainian artillery positions in the vicinity of Krasny Liman in the eastern part of Donetsk were reportedly destroyed.
Since the beginning of this war, the Ukrainian military has received the majority of its weapons from Washington.
Meanwhile, following a Sunday phone call with his American counterpart Joe Biden in which they discussed boosting Kyiv’s military assistance, Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky urged increased pressure on Moscow.
