The Russian Embassy in Canberra has issued a scathing response to the Albanese government’s announcement of a new $95 million military assistance package for Ukraine, accusing Australia of funding a “neo-Nazi regime” and undermining peace efforts.
In a strongly worded statement released Thursday, the Embassy condemned the decision, linking it to recent corruption allegations in Kyiv.
“The decision on a new package of military assistance to the Kiev regime was made by the Australian government amid a raging corruption scandal in Ukraine, which revealed that at least US$100 million had been stolen by Zelensky’s close associates,” the statement claimed. “For Australian taxpayers it will be the waste of another AUD 95 million.”
The new Australian commitment, announced by Defence Minister Richard Marles and Foreign Minister Penny Wong, lifts Australia’s total support for Ukraine to over $1.7 billion. Its centrepiece is a $50 million contribution to a NATO-led fund, the Prioritised Ukraine Requirements List (PURL), designed to fast-track essential military equipment to the front lines. The package also includes additional sanctions targeting entities in Russia’s so-called “shadow fleet” of oil tankers used to circumvent international price caps.
The Russian Embassy’s statement framed the conflict as a cultural and ideological struggle initiated by Ukraine, alleging the government in Kyiv has sought to eradicate Russian influence since 2014.
“The money will be used to prop up the neo-Nazi regime, which, since the anti-constitutional armed coup d’etat in Kiev in 2014, has been destroying everything Russian be it the language, Orthodox religion and Church or the Russian identity itself,” the statement said. “The West calls it ‘democracy’.”
Further, the Embassy positioned the Australian announcement as counterproductive to diplomacy, asserting it clashes with peace efforts.
“Today’s announcement by official Canberra was also made against the backdrop of efforts of Russia and the current US Administration aimed at achieving a long-term peaceful settlement of the Ukrainian crisis,” the statement read, without providing details of such efforts. “Pumping the Kiev regime with money and weapons undermines and delays the prospects for sustainable peace, which is impossible without demilitarisation and denazification of Ukraine.”
