THE SQUIZ

The Australian Government has approved a new support package for Ukraine worth $110 million as Russia’s war drags on. The funding covers 70 military vehicles, ammunition, and a $10 million donation to the United Nations for its humanitarian work across the country. Ukraine’s officials had their fingers crossed for some Hawkeis – the Aussie-made light patrol military vehicles – but yesterday, PM Anthony Albanese did not answer those calls. Coalition leader Peter Dutton said the government “should get on with it and provide that support”, but Albanese said there were better ways we could help. Ukraine’s Defence Minister Oleksii Reznikov was happy – he tweeted yesterday that he was “grateful to Australia for the Anzac spirit and for standing strong with Ukraine”.

SO WHAT’S THE LATEST ON THE WAR?

That’s a fair question given the uprising led by Wagner boss Yevgeny Prigozhin over the weekend. Yesterday, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky put in some calls to key allies ahead of the NATO summit in Lithuania in a fortnight. He spoke to US President Joe Biden, Canada’s PM Justin Trudeau and Polish President Andrzej Duda about Ukraine’s counteroffensive – and unsurprisingly, Russia’s internal dramas also got a mention… In a statement after the calls, Zelensky said that “Russian aggression is gradually returning to its home harbour”. Albanese is attending that upcoming NATO meeting, but yesterday he made it clear that the timing of Oz’s new support package had nothing to do with what’s unfolded in Russia – but he did say it is “a disaster for Mr Putin”.

AND WHAT ABOUT RUSSIA’S TROUBLES?

The experts are broadly aligned that it’s been a damaging chapter for President Vladimir Putin – and particularly troubling for the Kremlin is that some Russians gave their support to the Wagner mercenaries during the weekend’s uprising. “If I were Putin, I would be worried about those people on the streets of Rostov cheering the Wagner people,” CNN’s Russia expert Jill Dougherty said. But Putin doesn’t agree with that assessment – this morning he has addressed the nation and said “solidarity has shown that any blackmail attempts to create internal unrest are doomed to failure.” And overnight, Prigozhin released his first video message after Saturday’s mutiny – he said he had no intention of trying to topple Russia’s government but was focused on holding Russia’s defence ministry to account for failures that have seen thousands of Russian fighters die in Ukraine.