The Australian-Ukrainian community and the AFUO (Australian Federation of Ukrainian Organisations) strongly rejects and condemns the Russian Ambassador\u2019s recent comments which claim that the Russian troop build-up is a warning to discourage Ukraine from \u201ctrying reckless military adventures\u2019.<\/p>\n
AFUO President, Mr Stefan Romaniw OAM, said whether the massing of 127,000 troops on Ukraine\u2019s border is a \u2018threat\u2019 or a \u2018warning\u2019 is immaterial; invasion is a serious possibility.<\/p>\n
\u201cUkraine is not threatening Russia. It is Russia that invaded Ukraine in 2014, seized and retains control of Ukraine\u2019s Crimean peninsula and part of eastern Ukraine, and is engaging in military activities that look like the preparations for an invasion\u2019 he said.<\/p>\n
\u2018Ukraine\u2019s only current \u2018military adventures\u2019 are to ask for military equipment to defend itself from Russian attack\u2019 he said.<\/p>\n
Mr Romaniw also rejected the Ambassador\u2019s contention that Ukraine had broken the terms of the Minsk Agreements, signed in 2014 and 2015.<\/p>\n
\u201cRussian forces attacked and occupied the Ukrainian town of Debal\u2019tseve before the ink was dry. Under Minsk II, Ukraine would be forced to change its constitution, effectively creating a Russian-controlled province in Ukraine which would be represented in Ukraine\u2019s Parliament. \u00a0As critics of Minsk II in and outside Ukraine have pointed out, Russia would be able to destabilise or paralyse the country at any time of its choosing\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe agreement legitimises the first steps of Putin\u2019s plans to re-establish a Russian area of influence in eastern Europe and create puppet states subject to Russian control\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe Ambassador\u2019s comments are the height of hypocrisy. It is the Russian government which has violated a number of international agreements, most notably the 1994 Budapest Memorandum, which guaranteed Ukraine\u2019s independence and territorial integrity in return for it giving up its nuclear weapons\u201d he added.<\/p>\n
Although the Ambassador states that Australia should not become involved, Mr Romaniw emphatically rejects the notion Putin\u2019s actions do not concern Australia.<\/p>\n
\u201cAustralia is a member of the international community. It upholds international law and abides by norms of international behaviour. If Australia and the West do not respond to the threat of coercive force, the sovereignty and independence of any country in the world is not guaranteed, including those in the Asia-Pacific region\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cTaking the international foot off the pedal would be a sign of weakness and compromise. That would be the green light for Putin to act\u201d he added.<\/p>\n
Mr Romaniw acknowledged the Australian Government\u2019s support of Ukraine in its statements and pledge of assistance in Ukraine\u2019s cyber defence.<\/p>\n
Inquiries: <\/strong><\/p>\n Mr Stefan Romaniw OAM –\u00a0<\/strong>Contact: 0419 531 255<\/strong><\/p>\n Mr Dan Wolody – Contact: 0401 311 596<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The Australian-Ukrainian community and the AFUO (Australian Federation of Ukrainian Organisations) strongly rejects and condemns the Russian Ambassador\u2019s recent comments which claim that the Russian troop build-up is a warning […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":567,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_EventAllDay":false,"_EventTimezone":"","_EventStartDate":"","_EventEndDate":"","_EventStartDateUTC":"","_EventEndDateUTC":"","_EventShowMap":false,"_EventShowMapLink":false,"_EventURL":"","_EventCost":"","_EventCostDescription":"","_EventCurrencySymbol":"","_EventCurrencyCode":"","_EventCurrencyPosition":"","_EventDateTimeSeparator":"","_EventTimeRangeSeparator":"","_EventOrganizerID":[],"_EventVenueID":[],"_OrganizerEmail":"","_OrganizerPhone":"","_OrganizerWebsite":"","_VenueAddress":"","_VenueCity":"","_VenueCountry":"","_VenueProvince":"","_VenueState":"","_VenueZip":"","_VenuePhone":"","_VenueURL":"","_VenueStateProvince":"","_VenueLat":"","_VenueLng":"","_VenueShowMap":false,"_VenueShowMapLink":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-566","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorised"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/ucnsw.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/01\/ukraine_maidan_flags001-scaled.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ucnsw.org\/api\/wp\/v2\/posts\/566","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ucnsw.org\/api\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ucnsw.org\/api\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ucnsw.org\/api\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ucnsw.org\/api\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=566"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/ucnsw.org\/api\/wp\/v2\/posts\/566\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":568,"href":"https:\/\/ucnsw.org\/api\/wp\/v2\/posts\/566\/revisions\/568"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ucnsw.org\/api\/wp\/v2\/media\/567"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ucnsw.org\/api\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=566"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ucnsw.org\/api\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=566"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ucnsw.org\/api\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=566"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}