{"id":3797,"date":"2025-07-18T18:21:43","date_gmt":"2025-07-18T18:21:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/3797\/"},"modified":"2025-07-18T18:21:43","modified_gmt":"2025-07-18T18:21:43","slug":"australia-hands-over-first-tranche-of-tanks-to-ukraine","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/3797\/","title":{"rendered":"Australia hands over first tranche of tanks to Ukraine"},"content":{"rendered":"

The first tranche of Australian tanks has been handed over to the Ukrainian army to help its defence against Russia’s invasion.<\/p>\n

Australia pledged to give Ukraine 49 Abrams tanks at a value of $245 million.<\/p>\n

\"Defence<\/p>\n

Defence Minister Richard Marles reaffirmed Australia’s ongoing support for Ukraine. (Hilary Wardaugh\/AAP PHOTOS)<\/p>\n

Defence Minister Richard Marles said the tanks would aid Ukrainian firepower and complement other military equipment donated by allies to repel Russia’s invasion.<\/p>\n

“Australia remains steadfast in our support for Ukraine and seeing a just and lasting peace,” Mr Marles said.<\/p>\n

A majority of the tanks have been delivered and a final tranche will arrive in the coming months, but actual numbers haven’t been released.<\/p>\n

\"Abrams<\/p>\n

The final allotment of Abrams tanks are due to arrive later this year. (Supplied by Department of Defence\/AAP PHOTOS)<\/p>\n

Russian missile and drone strikes in Ukraine are targeting civilians in record numbers, according to the United Nations human rights office.<\/p>\n

At least 139 civilians have been killed and more than 790 injured as of July 15.<\/p>\n

June marked the deadliest month for civilians in more than three years,<\/a> the UN said.<\/p>\n

Australia will also deploy a Wedgetail aircraft<\/a> to Europe in August to protect the corridors to Ukraine through which aid is delivered.<\/p>\n

“Australia stands shoulder-to-shoulder with Ukraine,” Defence Industry Minister Pat Conroy said.<\/p>\n

Australia has committed more than $1.5 billion to aid Ukraine since Russia’s invasion in February 2022.<\/p>\n

It comes as the federal government negotiates a non-binding security pact with Ukraine, following more than two dozen other nations that have similar agreements.<\/p>\n

The agreements are largely vague, aren’t legally binding and don’t include joint security or defence guarantees.<\/p>\n

Areas of co-operation for Australia and Ukraine likely to be included in such a pact span military assistance and collaboration.<\/p>\n

A second agreement eliminating double taxation to encourage investment in Ukraine to help it rebuild after the devastating war is also set to be inked.<\/p>\n

The delivery of tanks also comes as United Nations and humanitarian partners launched an appeal to try and raise hundreds of millions of dollars to protect Ukrainians facing a harsh winter as Russia attacks critical infrastructure.<\/p>\n

The winter response plan aims to deliver humanitarian assistance to more than 1.7 million people between October 2025 and March 2026.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The first tranche of Australian tanks has been handed over to the Ukrainian army to help its defence…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":3798,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[5526,64,63,5527,44,3406,2016,5528,5525],"class_list":{"0":"post-3797","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-australia","8":"tag-abrams-tanks","9":"tag-au","10":"tag-australia","11":"tag-defence-minister","12":"tag-news","13":"tag-richard-marles","14":"tag-russia","15":"tag-tanks","16":"tag-ukraine"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3797","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3797"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3797\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3798"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3797"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3797"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3797"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}