PM visit to Ukraine would be ‘history in the making’
A visit to Ukraine by Prime Minister Anthony Albanese would be “history in the making”, the country’s ambassador to Australia says as he urges the Labor government to boost its supply of heavy weaponry.
Ambassador Vasyl Myroshnychenko acknowledged Ukraine was not a safe country as Russia pummelled civilian targets, but said Albanese had the chance to make history as the first Australian prime minister to visit the country.
“My president [Volodymyr Zelensky] assured me that that Prime Minister Albanese would be very welcome. He’d be delighted to see him. He’d be able to show him around. And he would be really honoured to host him in Ukraine,” he told reporters at Parliament House.
Myroshnychenko noted British Prime Minister Boris Johnson had visited Ukraine alongside leaders of Italy, Germany and France.
“My parents are not safe, my mother-in-law is not safe, my close friends in Kyiv are not safe. Nobody’s safe in Ukraine. That’s the reality of war.”
Zelensky would plead for more than just weapons and ammunition when he addressed the NATO summit meeting in Madrid that Albanese is attending as part of a delegation of countries from the Asia-Pacific including Japan, South Korea and New Zealand.
“We all understand that eventually Ukraine needs to get some security guarantees. And because whatever conventions we’ve signed, whatever multilateral agreements we’ve been part of, Russia has violated,” Myroshnychenko said.
He wanted Australia to give Ukraine more weaponry over and above the 40 Bushmasters committed, 20 of which had arrived in Ukraine, as well as additional Vietnam War-era M113 armoured personnel carriers the ADF was working to replace.
Four of 14 carriers are en route to Ukraine. Australia’s overall military assistance totalling more than $300 million had made the country “very, very well-regarded in Ukraine”, Myroshnychenko said.
“Everybody is very positively surprised by how Australia has been able to stand out and this war.
“Previously, in the past, we were so far away you don’t hear about Australia that often. But for the past three months, Australia has been in the Ukrainian headlines.”
The ambassador said Australia had “a huge stake in this war” that would have significant consequences for the prosperity and stability of the Indo-Pacific.
“That will be discussed in Madrid where all the NATO member states meet along with the allies Australia and New Zealand, Japan and Korea, we’ll be out there discussing the Indo-Pacific, discussing posturing of China and how it can actually change depending on how this war plays out.”
He was hopeful Russia’s invasion of Ukraine would end this year. The cost of the war was estimated to be around $1 trillion, with the nation expected to take a generation or two to recover.
Myroshnychenko urged Australia to participate in a Ukraine Recovery Conference in the Swiss city of Lugano over July 4 and 5.
“Russia has been destroying our critical infrastructure on purpose because they now understand they cannot invade the country. But they want to inflict the largest damage they can,” he said.
Myroshnychenko labelled Russia defaulting on its foreign debt as the start of the end for the dictatorship and said Russia people were culprits as much as President Vladimir Putin because many supported the invasion.
“That’s the end of Russia as we know it. And it’s coming. It’s just a matter of time because the damage that Putin has done to Russia is enormous,” he said.
“Many people in Russia believe that Putin is too weak because he promised to crush Ukraine in three days. And actually three months later, he hasn’t achieved much. And now there is an internal pressure.”