Australia should consider spending some of its newly announced, near-record $20 billion budget surplus on more aid for Ukraine, the country’s ambassador has suggested.

Last week, Australia announced it was donating a package totalling $110 million composed of 70 military vehicles to the country, which was invaded by Russia last year.

The announcement drew criticism from the Opposition, which described the aid as inadequate – Peter Dutton compared the offer of older-model military vehicles to a garage cleanout.

Since then, official government finance figures have shown Australia’s budget surplus has risen by almost five times the $4 billion posted in the May budget, thanks mostly to incoming revenue from rising commodity prices and low unemployment.

The Ukrainian ambassador to Australia, Vasyl Myroshnychenko, used an interview with the ABC on Sunday to suggest Australia was part of a cohort of countries to benefit from a commodity surge he says began with Russia’s invasion.

“Many of our partners have inadvertently benefited from the increased prices for commodities, and, of course, this is all the result of the Russian invasion of Ukraine,” he said on Sunday.

“Countries like Canada, Norway, Australia – the increased prices for commodities have really done well for their budgets and the surplus of their budgets, and we’ll see how these countries are stepping up their support.”

Australia has provided $790 million in military assistance since the invasion of Ukraine began.

“It is up to the government to decide what else they can do for Ukraine,” Mr Myroshnychenko said.

After the most recent budget, the government’s critics lashed a $40-a-fortnight increase in the JobSeeker unemployment benefit as too meagre.

The Greens, meanwhile are holding up for an advance on the $500 million promised to be dispensed through a housing fund currently caught up in the Senate.

But this week Assistant Treasurer Stephen Jones said fiscal restraint had served the government well and left it in a position to handle future financial challenges

The budget’s underlying cash balance for the 12 months to May was $19 billion, well above the $4.2 billion surplus flagged in the budget.

Mr Albanese will attend a NATO summit in Vilnius on July 11 where further assistance could be announced.

Ukraine is pushing to be made a member of the security alliance. Finland became its 31st member in April.

Ukraine has publicly campaigned for Australia to donate ‘Hawkei’ vehicles, and the country’s Eurovision cast starred in a public campaign.

“We do feel there were issues around Hawkeis, which is hard to go into publicly,” Defence Minister Richard Marles told ABC Radio this week.

Mr Myroshnychenko said Ukraine was “incredibly grateful” for Australia’s support.

In January the country’s president Volodymyr Zelensky said he would wage a war on corruption.

In a wide-ranging cleanup, officials were fired and anti-graft programs brought in following reports of corruption in programs for food aid and pharmaceuticals.

One week on from an abortive mutiny launched by fighters aligned to the private military company known as the Wagner Group, there were reports of a fresh strike on Kyiv this weekend.

After a 12-day break in offensive activity, Russia launched a drone attack on Kyiv, one of the country’s military officials told The Guardian.

“Another enemy attack on Kyiv,” said Serhiy Popko from the city’s military administration.

“At this moment, there is no information about possible casualties or damage.”