Australia approves major no-strings-attached tank donation to Ukraine

Australia is to dispatch 49 ageing M1A1 Abrams tanks to Ukraine, according to Canberra’s defence minister, several months after Kyiv requested the use of the redundant fleet.

The Australian government was giving Ukraine most of its American-made M1A1 tanks, which are valued at 245 million Australian dollars (€150.8 million), Richard Marles said.

Australia will replenish its forces with a fleet of 75 next-generation M1A2 tanks.

As recently as February this year, Marles declared that giving Ukraine the tanks as they were phased out was not on his government’s agenda. But on Thursday, he said the newly announced donation does not count as a U-turn.

“We talk with the Ukrainian government consistently around how best we can support them,” Marles told the ABC news service.

“We look at the material that we have: its effectiveness … the shape that it’s in, to be frank, whether it would be able to make a difference, whether it can be sustained and maintained so that it can be kept in the fight. And the Abrams tanks fit all of those criteria.”

The tanks bring the total value of Australia’s military assistance to Ukraine since Russia’s 2022 invasion to over AU$1.3 billion (€8 million).

The tank donation comes as Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy tours allied capitals to gather support for a “victory plan” which he is presenting as the only surefire way to bring the war to an end without making territorial concessions to Russia.

Freedom to cross the border

According to Defence Industry and Capability Delivery Minister Pat Conroy, the US gave permission for Australia to transfer the tanks to Ukraine as required under US International Traffic in Arms Regulations.

“We are working very closely with our US allies on the donation of these tanks,” Conroy said.

The US agreed to send 31 Abrams tanks to Ukraine in January 2023 after months of lobbying by Kyiv, with Ukrainian leaders arguing that their forces could not breach Russian lines without enhanced tank capabilities.

Conroy said Australia was placing no specific conditions on how Ukraine may use the tanks or on whether they can be deployed across the Russian border.

This is a departure from the policy of most of Ukrainian’s Western supporters, who have been loath to grant explicit permission for cross-border strikes using their donated materiel for fear the war could morph into a direct Russia-NATO conflict.

“Our long-standing principle is as long as they are used according to the international rules of law, there are no other conditions,” Conroy said.

Ukraine’s Ambassador to Australia Vasyl Myroshnychenko would not be drawn on the question of whether the tanks should have been donated earlier.

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“This is a very timely, a very substantial and very fit-for-purpose announcement,” he said. “We respect the decision of the government. It was not an easy one and I’m very happy that it was a positive one.”