While I’m currently back in Ukraine from my diplomatic posting in Canberra, I have had the chance to speak to everyday Ukrainians about Australia, and their views are very heartening. To put it simply, while Russia’s war on Ukraine is savage and sinister, a silver lining of the last two years has been that Ukrainians and Australians have become closer based on shared values.
Yes, it’s undeniably the case that Australia and Ukraine are geographically distant from each other. Historically, Ukrainians knew little about Australia beyond the “kangaroo cliché” and the connection via Mykola Mykluho-Maclay, a 19th-century explorer and botanist from Kyiv who eventually made a home and name for himself in Sydney. I suspect Australians knew even less about Ukraine, which only gained its independence from Soviet Russian control in 1991.
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However, on emotional and political levels, the distance significantly shrank in 2014 when a Russian-led cell blew Flight MH17 and 38 innocent Australians out of the sky above eastern Ukraine. Common tragedy then brought us closer and, as I have previously said, we became bonded by blood. What’s less remarked is that, during that very sad period, Ukrainians witnessed the strong purpose and professionalism with which Australia responded in the interests of victims’ families and justice.
The downing of MH17 was also an early indicator of what I call the “Putin effect.” Every time the dictator in the Kremlin violently seeks to fulfil his abhorrent ambitions, he gets the inverse outcome. Putin said he wanted to “protect Russia from NATO” – and now it is expanded to include Sweden and Finland as members. Putin said he wanted to “protect Russian speakers” – and now that segment of Ukraine’s population has substantially switched away from the Russian language.
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In the weeks after MH17, I recall our own officials commenting on and admiring the high standards – diplomatic and operational – of the Australian team dispatched to Ukraine. “We should aspire to be like the Australians” was a common refrain. (The opening of Australia’s Embassy in Kyiv was a significant milestone during this period and my government remains hopeful that it will re-open soon.)
The relationship of Australia and Ukraine, however, was completely re-shaped on Feb. 24, 2022 when Russia unilaterally and illegally undertook a full-scale invasion of Ukraine. Almost immediately and without hesitation, our friends in Australia responded with military and other aid to help us defend not only ourselves, but values that Australia also subscribes to such as democracy, sovereignty and the rules-based international order. In the following months, it was also extremely generous of Australia to accept around 5,000 humanitarian refugees – mostly women and their children – from my embattled country.
Since that time, interaction between our two countries has steadily increased and Australian military and humanitarian support for Ukraine is now over $1 billion for which we are extremely grateful not only at the government level, but among the general Ukrainian public.
It’s a key theme I’m regularly hearing here in the past week. “Tell them that we are thankful and that we won’t let them down,” frontline personnel have said. I cannot overstate how much Ukrainian soldiers appreciate the materiel support Australia has provided. “The Bushmasters – they’re great,” is often offered in reference to the Australian military vehicle which the Armed Forces of Ukraine strongly rate and which has become the stuff of legend here.
“They’re so far away but they still help us,” civilians have commented. In some respects, the fact that Australia is so distant and not in Russia’s direct line of fire underscores the leadership its aid to Ukraine represents. Indeed, every dollar invested in and provided in military aid has had a multiplier effect on Ukrainians’ morale – even as they have endured attacks by more than 12,000 missiles, flying bombs and kamikaze drones this year.
“Please tell the Australians – and the Americans and everyone else – that we need support to win and not just to defend ourselves”; it’s also been said here. Indeed, many Ukrainians are of the view that the West should show greater strategic resolve with regard to the war and prosecuting its ending. In recent weeks, F-16 jets – first requested nearly 30 months ago – arrived in Ukraine; they are an example of the modern weaponry that gives Ukraine the technological advantages it needs to not only survive Putin’s onslaught but to victoriously thrive.
In this respect, my colleagues in Kyiv are very encouraged by recent statements from the Australian government that show it appreciates the precedential nature of the war on Ukraine and the need for a decisive outcome. Or, as Deputy Prime Minister Richard Marles told the recent NATO summit, “war in eastern Europe [is] completely relevant to the Indo-Pacific, to Australia.”
“Tell them to come visit us,” a local told me the other day. In fact, there are more Australians in Ukraine right now than ever before – with many of them bravely engaged in voluntary and humanitarian efforts. We hope that number grows even more when the war ends – and it will end – and the reconstruction effort starts in earnest. As already being discussed in boardrooms in Australia, that reconstruction effort represents real opportunity for Aussie expertise in infrastructure development and many other aspects.
When I travel back to chilly Canberra in the next period, I will bring with me the warmth that my fellow Ukrainians have for their Australian mates.
This opinion was originally published in Australian newspaper The Daily Telegraph. The original can be read here.
The views expressed in this opinion article are the author’s and not necessarily those of Kyiv Post.
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