New Zealand is extending its military assistance in support of Ukraine’s self-defence until December 2026.
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon made the announcement early this morning (NZT) in London.
“New Zealand is unwavering in its support for Ukraine against Russia’s illegal and unprovoked invasion,” he said.
“That is why we are extending our deployment of up to 100 New Zealand Defence Force personnel to train Ukrainian soldiers in the UK and throughout Europe, and provide intelligence, liaison and logistics support through to December 2026.”
Our contribution has mostly been assisting in military training, humanitarian aid and giving them some ageing equipment. Last I checked our per capita contribution to Ukraine was lower than even Russian allies like China. We can and should do more.
I agree we should be supporting the Palestinians, but these two stances aren’t mutually exclusive.
We have more than enough to look after our own people AND support democracies fighting for their freedom.
OK I don’t see the relevance in the conversation though. It’s still money we are spending one way or another.
Again I don’t care.
We should do less if not nothing. We have dire need in this country. Waiting lists are huge. Many areas are missing key specialists like cardiologists and people are waiting almost a year for assessments. People are probably dying waiting to be seen.
They are. We have no money to spend but if we are forced to spend money on foreign aid it should go to the most needy. There are plenty of countries helping Ukraine and nobody is helping Gaza.
no we don’t. We are fucking broke. We can’t afford to pay our teachers and nurses and doctors and they are fleeing the country in order to make a living.
We can. We’ve just chosen to spend billions on tax cuts that (as always) disproportionately help the upper echelons of wealth in this country.
We could easily fund all of this by simply having a fair tax system. We choose not to.
My grandfather used to say “wish in one hand and shit in the other and see which one fills faster”.
You can wish for a fairer tax system but that ain’t happening. What is happening right now is spending decisions by the government and you can do something about that.