Albanese government pledges $95m to Ukraine, new sanctions on Russian ‘ghost fleet’
Following the failure to reach a peace agreement in marathon negotiations in Russia, the Albanian government will provide another $95 million in military support to Ukraine and impose new sanctions on Russia’s “shadow fleet.”
The package announced on Wednesday is the first tranche of military hardware given to Ukraine since October 2024.
Of this amount, $43 million includes tactical air defense radars, munitions and combat engineering equipment, as well as $50 million towards NATO’s Priority Ukrainian Requirements List (PURL), the first time Australia has contributed to the programme.
The initiative involves NATO coordinating the purchase of critical defense equipment from the United States.
So far this year, Canada, Germany, the Baltic and Scandinavian countries have announced nearly $2.2 billion in financing through the program.
New Zealand is also expected to announce its commitment to the project overnight.
Deputy Prime Minister Richard Marles said the commitments “will make a tangible difference in Ukraine’s defense against Russia’s illegal and immoral occupation.”
“We are proud to contribute to PURL by standing in solidarity with NATO and our partners in the Indo-Pacific to see a just and lasting peace for Ukraine.”
To date, Australia has provided more than $1.5 billion in military assistance to Ukraine, including the training of Ukrainian military personnel in the UK as part of Operation Kudu and the recent deployment of the E-7A Wedgetail, which supports the flow of humanitarian and military aid.
The federal government will also provide $2 million to the Drone Capability Coalition, a multinational initiative that provides drones and drone parts to Ukraine.
The last tranche of 49 M1A1 Abrams tanks will be delivered to Ukraine in the coming weeks.
This comes amid reports that Australia is considering Ukraine’s request for Tiger helicopters and that the Australian Defense Force is in the process of retiring them.
The government faced backlash from Ukrainian society when it grounded and disbanded the Taipan fleet following a fatal crash in 2023.
Sanctions imposed on 45 ‘Shadow Fleet’ ships
The Albanian government will also seek to impose sanctions on 45 more “shadow fleet” ships.
So-called shadow fleets are ships that claim to fly under a different flag and sometimes conduct ship-to-ship transfers at sea to circumvent sanctions.
Ships, which are often poorly maintained and have reached the end of their useful life, also pose a risk of oil spills, marine accidents and subsea cables.
Foreign Affairs Minister Penny Wong said the sanctions complement those of international partners “as part of a coordinated effort to curtail Russia’s oil revenues and restrict its ability to finance its invasion.”
“As a result of the measures we have taken, Australia’s direct imports of Russian energy products have fallen from $80 million before the Russian invasion to zero,” he said.
This follows reports that at least 25 sanctioned vessels remain in the supply chains of Australian companies.
Russia and the United States failed to reach an agreement on a possible peace deal in Ukraine on Wednesday, the Kremlin said, following a five-hour Kremlin meeting between President Vladimir Putin and Donald Trump’s top envoy Steve Witkoff.
