Ukraine deserves all our support

There should be no delay in the Albanese government providing a positive response to Ukraine’s plea for more Australian help in combating Vladimir Putin’s monstrous invasion. Under the former Morrison government, Australia was among the first non-NATO nations to provide assistance. Anthony Albanese’s continuation of that commitment, together with his visit to Kyiv in July, has kept us where we should be – unequivocally on the side of humanity and decency in the face of the Russian tyrant’s barbaric aggression.

After “a very good discussion” with President Volodymyr Zelensky on Tuesday night, the Prime Minister confirmed he was considering a request for Australian personnel to train Ukrainian fighters. Earlier, Defence Minister Richard Marles said training was one measure being looked at among a range of ways in which Australia could do more to help, on top of the $385m worth of weapons, military equipment and supplies we have already provided.

Mr Albanese and Mr Marles should hurry up and give Mr Zelensky the positive answer Ukraine deserves. Even New Zealand, which has little surplus military equipment that it could offer Ukraine, has already committed 120 army trainers to Britain to help train Ukrainian soldiers. So have several other democratic nations, including Sweden, which also has sent 120 trainers, Denmark, The Netherlands, Canada and Finland.

The British program aims to rotate 10,000 Ukrainian soldiers through an intensive training course every 120 days, thereby boosting Kyiv’s fighting forces when the country is in urgent need of additional help, as Monday’s appalling bombardment by Mr Putin of mainly undefended civilian targets across Ukraine showed.

Mr Zelensky, in a tweet after speaking with Mr Albanese, noted the “importance of Australia’s security assistance so far” and called for more. Doubtless he had in mind the dozens of Australian Bushmaster armoured vehicles that have been widely praised by Ukraine’s military commanders.

Ukraine’s recent military successes, however, have obscured the reality that, matched against Russia and its equally iniquitous ally Belarus, Kyiv remains a minnow fighting a David and Goliath battle against a military monolith. It needs all the help it can get, even from countries far from the conflict zone, such as Australia.

To his credit, US President Joe Biden has poured almost $27bn of military equipment into Ukraine since the Russian tyrant launched his invasion on February 24. So have democracies from Europe and across the world. In Monday’s onslaught, Russia’s domination of Ukraine’s airspace using cruise missiles was enhanced further by its arsenal of lethal, Iranian-built Shahed 136 combat drones that were developed by Tehran for use by its murderous terrorist Hezbollah and Hamas proxies against Israel.

Surveying the inhumane devastation caused by the Russian bombardment, Mr Zelensky noted that “air defence is currently the No.1 priority for Ukraine”. It is imperative Kyiv’s allies take that statement of the obvious into account as they consider more help. Much hope attaches to the imminent arrival from the US of batteries of NASAMS, the lethal state-of-the-art National Advanced Surface-to-Air Missile System that has protected the White House in Washington from aerial threats since 2005.

There are clearly limits to what Australia can do to help at this critical juncture in the war. The grim picture Mr Marles painted earlier this week of combined budget overruns of $6.5bn, with 28 defence projects a cumulative 97 years late, was not pretty. The need to get the management of our own defence projects in order is clear. But that should not stop us doing what we can to help democratic Ukraine defeat the Russian despot’s lawless savagery. Ukraine is fighting a valiant battle for its sovereignty and survival. The world is no less fighting for the cause of civilisation and humanity that is threatened by Mr Putin. Australia’s interests lie unequivocally in doing whatever it can to help.