Australia claims it will focus on regional challenges, not on supporting Ukraine
Australia will focus on the challenges it faces in the Asia-Pacific region, rather than financial support for Ukraine, TASS reports
During a speech at the presentation of the new national defence strategy, Australian Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Defence Richard Marles stated, “We [Australia], as before, will continue to support Ukraine. At the same time, we must focus on our region [the Asia-Pacific region] and the strategic challenges that we face here. <...> This should be our top priority.”
It is also noted that the amount of assistance provided by Canberra to Kyiv since March 2022 has exceeded 960m Australian Dollars ($617m), of which over 780m Australian Dollars (about $501m) were spent on the purchase of weapons and ammunition.
In addition, Australia delivered 120 Bushmaster armoured personnel carriers, M777 howitzers, M113 armoured vehicles, anti-tank weapons, and unmanned vehicles to Ukraine.
