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AAP
AAP
Politics
Andrew Brown and Maeve Bannister

Pressure for more vehicles to be added to Ukraine aid

Ambassador Vasyl Myroshnychenko hopes future Australian aid to Ukraine includes military vehicles. (Dean Lewins/AAP PHOTOS) (AAP)

Ukraine is hopeful Australia's latest round of military support isn't the last, with armoured vehicles still high on the wish list.

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese announced Australia would provide an additional $110 million in assistance, with a package including 70 military vehicles, ammunition and $10m for a humanitarian fund.

It brings the total amount committed to $790m, including $610m in military assistance, since Russia's invasion in February 2022.

While armoured and special operations vehicles and trailers feature in the latest package, Bushmasters and Hawkeis do not.

Mr Albanese said the federal government was continuing to send equipment, but he defended not sending Hawkeis.

"It doesn't assist people you're trying to assist who are conducting a war to send them a piece of equipment that will not provide for the best assistance," he told ABC Radio.

"With due respect to some of the commentators, it's easy to just come up with a statement without examining."

Defence Minister Richard Marles said while the package did not offer Hawkeis, the equipment would make an impact on the ground in Ukraine.

"We do feel that there were issues around Hawkeis, which is hard to go into publicly," he told ABC Radio on Tuesday.

"We took the Ukrainians through what we believed were the issues there, and what we wanted to do was make sure that the equipment we were giving to Ukraine would make a difference for them on the battlefield."

Mr Marles said Australia was still one of the largest contributors of military aid to Ukraine outside of NATO.

"We've made clear to Ukraine that we will be standing with them for as long as it takes, and this is the fourth package that the Labor government has put in place," he said.

"There's been consistent, solid, reliable support from Australia under this government in areas which Ukraine needs."

Ukraine's ambassador to Australia, Vasyl Myroshnychenko, said he was reassured by the commitment to continue supporting his nation, but hoped future assistance would include the special military vehicles.

"I remain optimistic that these items will be included in our forthcoming packages, especially Bushmasters, (which) have really demonstrated their efficiency in Ukraine," he told Sky News.

"Some of them got destroyed, they need to be substituted and I think Australia really has an opportunity."

But Opposition Leader Peter Dutton warned Ukrainian citizens could be left "high and dry" if further military aid was not given.

"The Australian public has been very supportive of President Zelensky and his cause, and by sending Vietnam-era vehicles to Ukraine, it's not what they asked for," he told Seven's Sunrise program.

"The Ukraine military is very, very cognisant of what they need.

"They asked for particular vehicles, including the Hawkeis. They are the vehicles that should be sent because the Ukrainians know best what they need."

Opposition foreign affairs spokesman Simon Birmingham said the government was ignoring what Ukraine had requested.

"The opposition is concerned that defence is not being replenished for any of these contributions," he said.

"This is a concern that Australia's status as the leading non-NATO contributor to Ukraine has slipped away."

Mr Myroshnychenko said Ukrainians had watched with "popcorn and beer" as the attempted mutiny unfolded in Russia.

He said Ukrainian troops would see the chaotic events as an opportunity to build momentum against Russia's invasion.

"(Russian President Vladimir) Putin is weak ... so I think that's the beginning of the end of his regime and that was just one of the first signs of it," Mr Myroshnychenko said.

But he said the conflict was far from over and Ukraine would need ongoing assistance.

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