New Zealand pledges $25 million aid to Ukraine

The $25 million package and extension of a deployment of 97 Defence Force personnel to Europe to train Ukrainian military personnel, was announced by Peters and Defence Minister Judith Collins on February 22. The total support provided to Ukraine by New Zealand is now more than $100m.

Of the latest funding, $6.5m will be directed to a UK-administered fund that buys weapons and ammunition for Ukraine – so-called “lethal aid” the previous Government was initially wary of providing immediately after the invasion.

Australia has also supported Ukraine through this fund, announcing last week it would provide $50m to procure weapons.

The Government will also provide a further $7m to New Zealand and international aid agencies supporting Ukrainians displaced by the war, and $3m will go to a World Bank relief and reconstruction fund.

Peters said it was important to fund efforts to provide weapons to Ukraine because failure in the war would have “consequence for much wider than Ukraine”.

"We hope other countries make the effort as well. This is a war that was unprovoked, uncalled for, against all rules of international law, and we've got to make a stand as a country that understands the rule of law and the need for justice and fair play.“

Ukraine’s training needs have also changed. While an effort to train soldiers at a UK military base continues, New Zealand personnel will be elsewhere in Europe – but not in Ukraine itself – to train soldiers in casualty care, combat engineering, leadership, and maritime explosives.

Peters said the Government would also soon announce expanded and more effective economic sanctions on Russia.

“Every little bit helps in bringing home to the Russians that this is just not an anyway an excusable action.”

He said it remained the Government’s hope that the war will be ended and “we regret seriously that our relationship with Russia has been temporarily suspended”.

Before Russia’s 2014 invasion of Ukraine’s Crimea peninsula, New Zealand was “on the pathway to a far better economic long-term relationship” with Russia, Peters said.

“That saddens me immensely, and I look forward one day, and this is all cleared up, with a different administration, that we're back with was Russia again, for the right purposes.

“I look forward to it reality change, where they have understood that they didn't win the war, could not have won it against Western support of Ukraine, but that a future regime understands that we always wanted to work with him [Russian President Vladimir Putin], and leading up to 2014 that was our aspiration.”

Ukraine ambassador to New Zealand Vasyl Myroshnychenko, based in Canberra, said he was grateful for the package of support – the largest delivered by New Zealand since April 2022.

“We’re not asking [for people] to fight for us, we’re asking for the tools and equipment which can make a difference. The contributions which are being made by New Zealand are highly appreciated in Ukraine.

“At the end of the day, helping Ukraine is in the strategic interests of free democratic countries, and that it is definitely in the interest of New Zealand to continue to supporting us.”