Defence is tracking Bushmaster battle damage on social media

The admission in an Australian National Audit Office report suggests the military is using some of the same methods as Australian media and the world's partisan propagandists to tell when another one of the 90 vehicles earmarked for the conflict is destroyed.

Tracking Bushmasters via social media and news reports might not give the most thorough account of battlefield damage but does give a broad sense of ways the trucks are faring during Ukraine's latest major offensive, which has begun in recent weeks.

The Bendigo Advertiser has been using social media to track potential damage to Bushmasters since the war began.

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It has found the military vehicles everywhere from the bloody battle zones around Bakhmut to a military theme park outside Moscow.

A Bushmaster was reported destroyed as recently as this month on social media, in a case study of the value and limitations of the practice.

The Bendigo Advertiser is unable to independently confirm the images' authenticity but they show a Bushmaster destroyed by fire, purportedly in Ukraine's east.

The images were shared by a collection of people presenting themselves as everything from weapons researchers to normal members of the public.

More than a few were pro-Russian propagandists.

"The majority of the world doesn't support the Ukrainian Nazi regime. So why do we?" one posted in comments accompanying the images, repeating a false Russian trope about the democratic state led by a Jewish president.

"That's right as Australia is a little b**** state for Washington Elite Globalist Creeps trying to start WW3 where not a single non black mailed countries supports [sic] them."

The United States has never professed a desire to start a new world war with a fellow nuclear power and has taken steps to avoid provoking Russia into a broader conflict.

There is no credible evidence showing America is blackmailing Australia. This country's leaders have consistently given bipartisan support to aiding Ukraine on the grounds Russia illegally and unjustly invaded a sovereign democratic ally.

Pro-Ukrainian Twitter users used the images too, including those imploring the government to commit more Bushmasters to the conflict.

Others praised the vehicles for their reliability and capacity to protect Ukrainian troops.

"The vehicle likely did its job and kept the soldiers inside alive," one user wrote after posting the pictures.

Australian National Audit Office has not demanded Defence make major changes to assistance they have deemed effective overall, even if it has recommended some improvements.

"Defence's planning, implementation and delivery of the Australian Government's approved military assistance to the Government of Ukraine was largely effective," auditors said.