World War III.2 - Australia
After the Russian Federation’s invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, the Australian Government, like many other governments around the world, began to urgently provide financial, humanitarian and military assistance to the people and Government of Ukraine.1 As of February 2023, the Australian Government had committed approximately $688 million of support for the Government of Ukraine, including about $510 million announced as lethal and non-lethal military assistance.
The Australian Department of Defence (Defence) has been responsible for developing and providing advice to the Australian Government on what military assistance could be gifted to the Government of Ukraine without adversely affecting Australia’s own military capability or preparedness. Once options were decided by the Australian Government, Defence was responsible for delivering the military assistance to a location in Europe for transport to Ukraine.
The majority of the military assistance provided by the Australian Government has been from Defence’s own stock. Defence has also conducted procurements for items purchased from the Australian defence industry specifically for gifting to the Government of Ukraine. In addition to the gifting of materiel, Defence has provided military assistance through two financial contributions to a North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) trust fund for Ukraine and a financial contribution to the United Kingdom’s Ministry of Defence.
On 28 February 2022, the Prime Minister of Australia and other Australian Ministers issued a joint media release in which they said: "Australia will work with NATO and our other partners to provide lethal as well as non-lethal military equipment, medical supplies, and financial assistance to support the people of Ukraine. As an immediate measure, Australia will contribute US$3 million to NATO’s Trust Fund for Ukraine to support non-lethal military equipment and medical supplies. Details of Australia’s contribution of lethal military equipment are being worked through with our partners and will be announced soon."
The invasion of Ukraine by the Russian Federation is an ‘international crisis’ under the Australian Government Crisis Management Framework and triggered the standing up of intergovernmental coordination mechanisms. The Australian Government department with responsibility for preparing for, responding to and recovering from such crises is the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT).
Defence is a key supporting agency for international crises such as the invasion of Ukraine, where Australian Defence Force (ADF) assistance and/or cyber security incident management may be required. In developing an effective response, Defence can be expected to have engaged effectively with relevant stakeholders, established fit for purpose governance arrangements, assessed risks, and appropriately advised decision-makers. Defence adopted business as usual administrative and governance arrangements for the purpose of identifying, preparing and delivering military assistance. This was initially a fit for purpose approach. As the scale, duration and scope of the Australian Government’s commitment became clearer over time, there would have been merit in Defence assessing the continuing fitness for purpose of its arrangements.
There was no taskforce or senior responsible officer with overall accountability for this set of activities. Military Strategic Commitments (MSC), a division within Defence Force Headquarters, was assigned the role of ‘coordination of strategic aspects of the provision of military assistance’ by CDF in a task order (TASKORD) on 5 March 2022.
Defence relied on its normal processes for tasking relevant business areas within Defence and for those areas to understand and fulfill any obligations within their usual areas of responsibility. In the context of urgent directions from the Australian Government to provide military assistance to the Government of Ukraine, Defence did not appoint a senior responsible officer or establish a taskforce to undertake planning, or develop a bespoke implementation plan to guide the provision of military assistance to the Government of Ukraine.
Initially, there was a high tempo of briefs which were largely informational, including the daily updates mentioned above. At this stage, the situation in Ukraine was evolving rapidly and the Australian Government was still considering its response, including the types of military assistance that could be provided. On 1 March 2022, the Australian Government agreed to and announced a package of lethal and non-lethal military assistance.
The Coalition Government announced a comprehensive package of support - covering military, humanitarian, energy supplies, visas, settlement support in Australia and in third counties, and extensive sanctions on individuals and organisations that supported the war - within days and weeks of Russia’s first strikes against Ukraine in February 2022.
This comprehensive package established Australia’s reputation as the then leading non-NATO contributor to Ukraine, a commitment which supports Australia’s engagement with partners and allies to defend the sovereignty of smaller nations and the international rules-based order. Coupled with our rebuilding of Australia’s defence budget to above 2 percent of GDP, the Coalition’s package of military support to Ukraine also reinforced Australia’s position as a trusted defence partner willing to meet obligations to share the burden of global defence investments with our allies and partners.
More than a year since the war began, and over a year following the election of the Albanese Labor Government, the Ukrainian people’s need for Australian support remained as great as ever. The Ukrainian people continued to face constant attack from Russian missile strikes. The UN has confirmed more than 22,000 casualties since the war began, including more than 8,200 killed, with actual figures believed to be considerably higher. Russia continues its relentless attacks on civilian infrastructure including homes, hospitals, schools and energy infrastructure, as evidenced by yesterday’s destruction of the Nova Kakhovka dam. Belarus has recently confirmed it will host Russian nuclear weapons.
Despite Russia’s actions Ukraine has shown great resilience, which has been underpinned by many nations who have continued to increase their financial, military and humanitarian assistance for Ukraine. The G7 nations committed to intensifying diplomatic, financial and military support - including additional humanitarian assistance and assistance to support Ukraine’s energy sector. Australia’s AUKUS partners, for example, have both this year made significant and comprehensive announcements of additional support. The United Kingdom provided £2.3 billion of military assistance to Ukraine in 2022 and has committed to match, or exceed, that level of support in 2023-24. On 31 May 2023 the US announced its thirty-ninth drawdown of equipment from Defence inventories for Ukraine since August 2021, which included munitions and rockets as well as mine clearing equipment and systems.
Defence was effective in supporting the development of an Australian Government response and moved quickly to identify options for providing military assistance to the Government of Ukraine. The department: engaged with relevant stakeholders to inform its thinking and advice; adopted established administrative and governance arrangements to identify and advise on options and implementation issues; and assessed risks to Australian national interests and preparedness. Defence provided timely, relevant and co-ordinated advice to its senior leaders and decision-makers. An exception was the completeness of its advice to decision-makers regarding financial assistance grants to NATO and the UK Ministry of Defence.
Prime Minister met with President Zelenskyy on 12 July 2023 in Vilnius, Lithuania. "I conveyed to him the ongoing support of the Australian Government, and indeed the Australian people, for the struggle of the people and Government of Ukraine to defend their national sovereignty, to defend the international rule of law, and to condemn once again Russia's atrocities that have been committed in this illegal and immoral war. Australia will continue to stand with Ukraine for as long as is necessary, and we will continue to provide support for Ukraine because we understand that in today's interconnected world, Ukraine is not just fighting for its own national sovereignty it is fighting for the international rule of law to be applied, and this is a struggle that has implications for the entire world."
"On top of the announcement that I made on the 26th of June of a $110 million package including ammunition, heavy vehicles, and also $10 million in humanitarian assistance, as well as just a day ago we announced the provision of the Wedgetail aircraft in Germany which will be important in securing the corridor so that important supplies can be got to Ukraine with the deployment of 100 Australian Defence Force personnel into Berlin. Today I'm announcing an additional 30 Bushmasters will be provided for Ukraine, this brings the total number of Bushmasters which will have been provided to 120."
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