The Sydney Morning Herald reports that Ukrainian Defense Minister Alexei Reznikov and his Australian counterpart Richard Marles reached an "informal agreement on expanding military assistance to Kiev" on the sidelines of the Shangri-La Dialogue security conference
SYDNEY, June 6. /tass/. Ukraine is waiting for 90 new Hawkei armored vehicles from Australia as part of a new military assistance package, which may be announced during the NATO summit in July. This was reported by The Sydney Morning Herald on Tuesday.
According to her, during a meeting of the heads of the military departments of the two countries on the sidelines of the Shangri-La Dialogue security conference held last weekend in Singapore, Ukrainian Defense Minister Alexei Reznikov and his Australian counterpart Richard Marles reached an "informal agreement on expanding military assistance to Kiev." "Hawkei cars were number one in the list of requirements for Australia," the newspaper quotes the words of the Ukrainian minister.
Reznikov's statement about a new military aid package from Canberra, previously published on his Twitter page, was refuted by Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese. He stressed that the Australian authorities will independently report on their decisions as soon as they are ready. "Our government is old enough to announce its decisions when they are agreed by the Cabinet of Ministers within all necessary procedures," the prime minister said in response to Reznikov's message. The latter claimed that Australia would announce new supplies of military equipment in July at the NATO summit in Vilnius.
Albanese also noted that Australia has not yet completed the delivery of 90 Bushmaster multi-purpose armored personnel carriers (APCs) promised by Canberra to Kiev in the fall of 2022. As The Australian newspaper notes, the country's authorities are very restrained about the prospects of supplying new Hawkei to Kiev.
At the same time, the Australian Financial Review, citing unnamed sources, reported that the authorities of Australia, the United States and Ukraine are discussing the possibility of transferring 41 decommissioned Australian Air Force F-18 Hornet fighter jets to Kiev. According to the newspaper, Canberra intended to dismantle or sell the aircraft for use as training targets of the US Air Force. The publication notes that no official decisions regarding the transfer of decommissioned fighters, which will take at least four months to repair, have yet been made.
Since March 2022, Australia has sent 90 Bushmaster armored personnel carriers, 6 M777 howitzers, 28 M113 armored vehicles, anti-tank and other weapons to Ukraine, and also promised to deliver a batch of unmanned aerial vehicles to Kiev. The total amount of funds allocated by Canberra to support Kiev exceeded 655 million Australian dollars ($422 million). Most of this amount - about 475 million Australian dollars ($306 million) - was spent on the purchase of weapons.