Richard Marles (Corio, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Defence) Share this | Hansard source

Firstly, can I thank the member for his question and in doing so acknowledge his commitment to the support of Ukraine in its resistance against the immoral invasion by Russia of its territory and reiterate that our government, and I know the whole of the Australian people, stand with Ukraine in their resistance against Russia. I was at the NATO summit, able to meet with my counterpart, Rustem Umerov, to express our support for Ukraine in its resistance to Russia. He indicated to me, as I know President Zelensky has to the Prime Minister, the deep sense of gratitude that the Ukrainian people have to the Australian people for supporting their cause.

In relation to the question of sanctions, sanctioning Russia is a critically important part of what we need to do in terms of supporting Ukraine in its efforts to resist Russia. At that same NATO summit I announced increased sanctions to an additional 44 people and entities, which now means that in total there are about 1,500 people and entities in Russia that are the subject of Australian sanctions, which sees a significant impact on the Russian economy in areas such as electronics, energy and finance. It is a really important part of what we need to be doing to contest Russia in this moment, but it's not everything, as you know.

We continue to support Ukraine across the board. Since we've come to office we have had iterative announcements in supporting Ukraine with renewed assistance. That includes, most recently, 49 Abrams tanks, the first tranche of which are now in the hands of the Ukrainian Armed Forces—

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