“Australian drones are actually used to strike targets in Russia,” Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said in an online post, adding that Australia is being drawn into the conflict.

Zakharova accused the Australian government of “enthusiastically contributing to the anti-Russian campaign directed from Washington” while trying to hide from public opinion “the unenviable circumstances indicating that Australia is increasingly being drawn into the conflict in Ukraine”.

In July 2022, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese pledged to provide armoured personnel carriers, Bushmaster vehicles and drones to Ukraine during a visit to Kyiv.

In February this year – on the first anniversary of the Russian invasion of Ukraine – the Australian government again said it was providing drones to Ukraine to help it resist Russian forces.

“These systems provide a battlefield intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance capability for the Ukrainian Armed Forces as they continue to fight,” the Australian government said in a statement at the time.

Ukrainian ambassador to Australia Vasyl Myroshnychenko posted a link on social media platform X last week to an article in The Age that suggested Australian-made “cardboard drones” were used in a strike on the Kursk airfield inside Russia in late August.

Myroshnychenko tweeted that the site “was a ‘legitimate target’ for Ukraine’s armed forces… Russia uses that airport to launch military operations and send missiles into Ukraine”.

Australia has supported Ukraine with $790 million, including $610 million in military equipment, since the February 24, 2022 Russian invasion.

-with AAP/Reuters