PRIME Minister Anthony Albanese has said the Bendigo-made armoured vehicles bound for Ukraine are critical to that nation’s military effort against the Russian-made war.<\/p>\n
Mr Albanese made the comments during a visit to the Thales factory in Bendigo North last week and said the Bushmasters and Hawkeis already provided by Australia had made an enormous difference to Ukraine’s resistance to Russia’s invasion.<\/p>\n
“[Bushmasters are] on the ground making a difference each and every day to the defence of that nation,” he said.<\/p>\n
“[The war] is a struggle not just for the people of Ukraine, but a struggle for the rule of law internationally and for the rights of sovereign nation states to continue to exist.”<\/p>\n
Ukraine Ambassador to Australia Vasyl Myroshnychenko said his nation was grateful for the assistance so far, but support would need to be sustained if Ukraine was to win against Russia.<\/p>\n
“The reason why we need to step up this assistance is because this war in Ukraine is disrupting everything,” he said.<\/p>\n
“It’s really undermined security regionally, globally and it’s having a major impact on (Australia’s) partners here in the region.<\/p>\n
“We’ve seen the impact on the energy markets, on the volatility of the commodity markets, so it’s really in the interest of Australia to help Ukraine win and to help Ukraine be rebuilt.”<\/p>\n
Australia has already provided about $655 million in support for Ukraine, including $475 million in military assistance.<\/p>\n
This includes a total of 90 Bushmaster armoured vehicles which transport troops.<\/p>\n