‘Something doesn’t stack up’: Albanese govt denies Ukraine’s plea for retired helicopters

Australian Federation of Ukrainian Organisations Chair Stefan Romaniw has called out the Albanese government’s retired Taipan helicopter decision, which “doesn’t stack up” because Ukraine “needs support now”. Ukraine is pleading with the Australian government to donate its fleet of retired Taipan helicopters instead of dismantling and burying them. It was revealed on Thursday morning that Defence Minister Richard Marles was yet to respond to a request from the Ukrainians which came more than a month ago. Acting Defence Minister Pat Conroy formally rejected the request on Thursday afternoon. “On the Taipans, again, we want to see the best result – we want to see the best result for Australia; we want to see the best result for Ukraine,” Mr Romaniw told Sky News Australia. “We think there should be a bit of an inquiry into this and how all this came about because something really doesn’t stack up on this. “Our call out for the government now is this - it’s the same as it has been for the last two years … Ukraine needs support now; it needs military support now.”