War in the Ukraine – The Ukrainian Ambassador to Australia

On 25 May 2024 His Excellency Vasyl Myroshnychenko, Ukrainian Ambassador to Australia @4:51 addressed the members and guests of the Royal United Services Institute of New South Wales. He told of the War in Ukraine. The address was heartfelt, he was in Ukraine when war broke out and like many others moved his family to safety. He has seen his nation senselessly destroyed.
He tells the recent story of his nation where crazed dictators one after the other Nicholas Romanoff, Joseph Stahlin, Adolph Hitler and finally Vladimir Putin, all but one Russian persecuted the Ukrainian people, denying them their sovereignty, freedom, and in many cases their lives.
He thanks Australia for its support during the current conflict and appeals for more help. We who enjoy the bounty of peace can help. And we must also recognise the damage one deranged person can do in the full understanding there are other national leaders in this world suffering similar mental illness who might have designs on our Australian peace and security.
A Q&A session is included @42:43, well worth spending just over an hour of your time to watch.

the [Music] welcome everyone uh our members and our guests to today’s lunchtime lecture and a very warm welcome to our guest speaker his actually vasil morosn Chinko Ukrainian ambassador to Australia Ukraine is the second largest country in the continent of Europe second only to Russia smaller than New South Wales with a population almost five times that of New South Wales and nearly double that of the Commonwealth of Australia with a a long and complex history a thousand years in the making it has long been the Principal agricultural area of Europe its capital Kiev was founded in 482 yet in another sense it’s a very young country having become an independent state when the Soviet Union dissolved in 1991 when Russian forces began to roll towards the Ukrainian border on the evening of defender of the Fatherland day 23 February 2022 Moscow was anticipating the capture of Kiev within 3 days and having control of Ukraine by Victory Day which is on the 9th of May it was not to be the Russian military was repulsed it has since suffered colossal losses in personnel and military equipment however it still occupies Ukrainian territory it continues to press its numerical advantage and appears to be waging a war of attrition at Great cost to both sides yet in the words of Ukraine’s haunting but very moving national anthem Ukraine’s freedom has not yet perished nor has her glory your Excellency it’s a great honor to have you with us today while I would suggest that many a diplomat in Cambra outside of the Diplomatic Circle would be faceless to most Australians not so our guest who would be known and admired by many in this room indeed by many in our country for his time efforts promoting the Ukrainian cause is a familiar face on our news screens so familiar in fact that it’s hard to believe that he only assumed the functions of the ambassador of Ukraine to Australia on the 1st of April 2022 having briefly served as an adviser to the Minister of Defense of Ukraine just prior to his appointment and before that having served as a member of the supervisory Board of the UK Ukrainian Institute a cultural diplomacy outfit of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine prior to joining the Foreign Service he was an active business and Civil Society leader in Ukraine a partner of a k based strategic Communications company co-founder chairman and board member of various non-government organizations amplifying Ukraine’s voice internationally mobilizing talent for the economic legal and judicial reforms in Ukraine and president of the European youth Parliament Ukraine please welcome his Excellency Vil marash nenko to the [Applause] podium Tim thuner ladies and gentlemen it’s a great honor and pleasure for me to be here at the Anzac Memorial to deliver the lecture or actually my talk uh here today thanks a lot for for for a turnout I’m really impressed by the number of people who showed up and uh it’s a great pleasure look I will just share with you my story um and uh we’ll try to cover as much ground as possible but I would welcome your questions following 30 or 40 minutes of my talk I would be very pleased to answer your questions so ple please keep them in mind raise your hand and when we are done uh I actually like these interactive sessions even much more than just a regular talk but look I will probably start on the on the day when it all started and I will never forget that moment when I was still in Ukraine when the war broke out and uh you wake up at 5:00 in the morning and my wife wakes me up and says look I hear explosions the war has started and this is probably one of the most scary moments in your life which you could never forget because in a way for a long time following 3 months before that and following all this uh buildup of the Russian trip or many discussions in Ukraine and elsewhere will Russians invade and a lot of analysis was out there that um it’s not going to happen this is part of the Strategic ambiguity this is a way to intimidate Ukraine to force Ukraine uh into some concessions and uh and it was quite amazing how all these discussions and discourse was going on in fact I was just two weeks before the major Invasion I was participating in in a discussion on the French Ukrainian relations and there was an event organized by one of the leading top foreign policy think tanks called ifre in Paris and at that time already it was pretty much the US government was very clear that Russians are invading and we have all the confirmation that they going to do it uh but at the same time U many analysts in in France as well as the government um in France for instance uh did were not were not convinced and the same was actually the same for the German government um and and both countries and all these countries are part of NATO so for me it was always um in a way kind of dis um in a way mind mindboggling in a way because uh all these countries had the same intelligence but the interpretation of that intelligence was different and I still don’t have an answer why was it so actually it was actually chief of the German intelligence service was in Ukraine on the 23rd and he then ended up uh you know when the war started it was he was being rescued and evacuated back uh back home but it was much more complicated and in a way I think what was missing was the way we have interpreted Vladimir Putin and actually his rationality for The Invasion and for him it looked like a perfect moment he was looking at the withdrawal of the troops of the American troops of Afghanistan he was also looking at the upcoming elections in France and and and knowing that French will be more focused on their domestic issues uh their relationship with Germany was quite solid uh German uh economy heavily depended on the supply of the Russian gas and of course we all know that the the the Putin’s came and Putin’s plan was it was of a blitz Creek to take Ukraine over in a in in in in two weeks or faster and that’s it now uh 2 years and four months later we are still standing there and of course we can we can only look at that and see what was that out there that helped us going but I think what Putin has underestimated underestimated the resilience of the Ukrainian people to fight our willingness to get United and our ability to sacrifice our lives uh to defend the country and this is something that he was missing he was missing the proper intelligence out there what would be the reaction of the Ukrainian people probably the information he had that he will be gred with flowers but it didn’t happen and I think that was that moment of unity that all all ukrainians get really United it was a true leadership of president zalinsky who was out there and was able to communicate to to ukrainians from day one and I think that legendary video that he’s recorded uh holding his phone and looking into the camera having his theme out there he said I’m here my team is here and we’re here to fight and a bit later he said that I don’t need a right I need ammunition and I think it was a very clear message to the International Community to all our partners to actually come up with support for Ukraine of course we wouldn’t be able to withand this brutal attack without the support of over 50 Nations who have actually come together to help Ukraine to rescue Ukraine but now I would like to take you a little bit further into the history and talk a little bit about 10th Century history to give you more of an idea of what we where we had to how we how we ended up where we ended up now but um which you know if look just looking I mean I I won’t go back to Medieval history though we know that vladim Putin is very fascinated with medieval history but at the same time I just want to look at the 20th century history so you can you you would you would know a little bit more but the relationship between Ukraine and Russia should be looked U from standpoint of colonialism where Ukraine was just part of the Russian colony and whatever the Russian policies on Ukraine were that one of a colonizer in 1917 following the bolik revolution in in Russia as well as the end of the world war War as it was coming to an end Ukraine became an independent state a Ukrainian National Republic was proclaimed it was in 1917 uh and for the next four years we had several governments in place until 1921 and that was probably the the modern day statehood that Ukraine enjoyed but in 1921 the the Communists and bolik came they crushed our independence and they have created Soviet Union in the 19 20s and 1930s um Soviet uh leadership in Stalin has undertaken a major collectivization plan basically forcing people to join Collective farms for every Ukrainian owning a piece of land was extremely important that was almost almost sacred thing to have a piece of land and they wouldn’t want to give up that land uh to the state and they really resisted heavily to those collectivization policies of the Soviet Union to punish ukrainians for their resistance Stalin has organized one of the biggest famines uh and man-made famines in in the world history as a result of that famine in 1932 1933 uh over 5 million ukrainians have died and it was just horrible and people were deprived of the food that they had they were deprived of any seeds that they had in in house and and just people just starved to death in 1937 Stalin has organized major repression against any public intellectuals in Ukraine he done it as well as in other parts of the Soviet Union but Ukraine was heavily targeted because Ukraine was seen as a source of nationalism a source of of resistance to the Soviet Rule and to actually nip it in the butt he executed and a lot of the Ukrainian writers composers uh as we now call them keedan leaders in a way who were uh really sent to guls or actually just killed that was a way to actually subdue any kind of resistance in 1939 Stalin has colluded with Nazi Germany and um basically is to blame for the thought for this of the second world war following the secret pack that was signed between uh the Nazi Germany and and the Soviet Union they have invaded the Baltic Nations as well as ined invaded um Eastern Poland at that time and basically that was a start uh of the of the second world war at a major scale of course Stalin did not expect for the Nazis to come back and actually invade the Soviet Union in 1941 but it did come and for the next four years a lot of the battlefield was taking place in Ukraine for the Ukrainian nation has probably suffered more than any other nation in in in those days because if we estimate that the losses of the Soviet losses in the second world war go up to 26 million at least 20 12 million of those were of ukrainians who died in the second world war so you can imagine the level of trauma that the country had to go through I mean in that period of time but especially during the second world war Soviet Union was an evil empire and it couldn’t last long the economy didn’t work uh the decision to invade Afghanistan in the 80s uh and also as well as a Chernobyl disaster all of that has precipitated the demise of the Soviet Union and um that really collapsed in the late 80s and in in the early 90s um it all fell apart and Ukraine became an independent nation in 1991 and for us for ukrainians it was a moment to celebrate because a lot of through generations the aspirations for our statehood was out there it was heavily subdued it was heavily oppressed but our aspiration to be an independent nation was there and as it was all collapsing uh it was an Unity for Ukraine to become an independent nation what has happened after that and I think this is of course um not going deeper into into what happened in Russia what happened in Ukraine but all the different countries who kind of gone on their own paths you know having its own problems of the transitional economies uh the emergence of the oligarchs corruption and some may major other different issues that all the transitional economies were going through but with the rise of Vladimir Putin when he he became a president of Russia he’s kind of gone on a different uh Road and I think he was he always had that in mind of admitting that the collapse of the Soviet Union was a big stragedy for him because at the times of the Soviet Union of the Cold War Soviet Union was feared and Soviet Union was respected and he felt like that he lost that respect because no longer every nobody was really uh scared of of the Soviet Union and in a way what also happened that Soviet Union never kind of gone through that period of Reckoning of actually of what had happened during the Soviet times on how evil the empire was and it was no period of actually going through that public discourse within the country or in a way re-education and actually sh sharing how bad the Soviet system was more so actually under the leadership of Vladimir Putin especially the past 15 years uh Stalin was in a way U revived as as a ruthless but a Justified leader of the of the of the Soviet Union which was quite bizarre given that he was even um basically uh he was denounced by the Communist Party in 1961 the way he was resurrected uh from that period of time was actually because of the aspirations of vladim Putin of creating somebody he could follow through Russia has invaded Georgia in 2008 and this is sentence which is often is messed uh out there in the discussions and in a way that Invasion that Russia has occupied 20% of the Georgian territory at that time has further emboldened him because the sanctions which were imposed on Russia they were not strong enough they were maybe weak and in 2014 when Russia invaded Ukraine initially grabbed Crimea invaded Eastern parts of Ukraine and this is what really emboldened Putin to actually carry on further the reaction was out there and especially if you look at Georgia you know whatever happened after Georgia’s Invasion and we could just look um at the map US Government tried to reset policy with with with Russia it all failed uh it was the reset that was driven by Obama and and then it all changed and then when they invaded Ukraine initially and of course the most tragic uh one of the most tragic parts and especially for Australian that was a Downing of the mh7 and Russians have brought in the uh book system which is an uh air defense system into Ukraine and uh and they have targeted as a civilian aircraft that was passing through the territory of Ukraine and and and killed um 298 people on board including 38 Australians we soon we’ll be commemorating this uh in in Cambra but Russians have to be held responsible for the crimes that they have committed and they have to be held to the account and as you know though we already have the decisions of the courts in in um uh in in the Netherlands but we still need to make sure that Russians are held uh accountable so those eight years we’ve had this war and uh it was not so much in the news it was a lot about the war in in the early days in 2014 and 2015 but Russians have really been focusing on biffing up their military they’ve been allocating more money to their defense industry and they were preparing for that perfect moment went to come back and to invade Ukraine at a much different scale so I have to admit so when that moment came on the 24th of of February 2022 I was also among those who did not believe that Russians would actually come with such a major offensive and um the I we thought that they would try to capture more territory in the East but we didn’t expect them to actually come from three different sides from the north from the East and from the South but they did and of course for me personally I mean in just remembering those days of how you try to pck up your stuff uh get your family in the car trying to leave the city and uh at that time you can imagine city is is 3 and a half million people and all everybody’s trying to leave the city and everybody gets stuck in a huge traffic jam there is no gas at the at the at the patrol stations and I’ve seen it in those films on Hollywood movies where they show kind of a catastrophe and everybody’s trying to escape it was especially it was very um you felt like you were in some sort of blur or it was very you couldn’t think straight because you couldn’t believe that it was actually happening to us you know one of the most um striking moments was for me when my when I took my family to Western Ukraine where my parents live and we spent some time there and then my family asked me can you evacuate us outside of the country because we don’t feel safe my 5-year-old son get really traumatized by the explosions he heard my 18-year-old daughter was also quite in a distress and I’ve decided to take my family out and we picked Romania um as a place where to go at that time the border with Poland was extremely crowded and was difficult to get through and um of course um and then a friend of mine reached out to me and he was from Rania I calculated that probably the fastest way would be to get them to the Border have them cross the border on foot and my friend would meet them on the other side and I was still uh left behind at that time I was in the middle of my appointment to come here to Australia but I didn’t know for sure it was going to come through because nobody knew what was going to happen and it was interesting when when when when they made it to Romania my son who was still very young uh but um he was asking my my wife why are we here why are we in Romania and my wife as also a student of international relations she was explaining to the kid that look n Romania is part of NATO and Russians will not invade Romania so we are in a safe place so fast forward 3 weeks later uh we we all now come to Australia and my son asks is Australia part of NATO will Russians invade and uh you know he doesn’t know what is NATO but he just made that click you know he made that connection that Romania was protected and uh is is of course is is a is Australia protected or not but look I think that was um um I want to describe to you what’s happened militarily for the past two years because I think it’s very important to look at the Dynamics of what was happening and uh how we were able to actually withstand that attack and some people say it was a miracle others believe that it was you know the The Bravery of the Ukrainian people that has um helped us to withstand that brutal Russian attack but um uh since 2022 we been able to push Russians out from 50% of the territory which they have originally occupied and um as we have uh as as Russian troops were defeated on the outskirts of Kev uh we have discovered um confirmations of massive war crimes and crimes against humanity which Russians have uh committed out there which would include rape summary executions uh torture uh and later as we would find out Abduction of the Ukrainian children which were happening at a m massive scale and whatever they were doing part of the strategy that but there was a strategy behind that and the strategy was to actually terrorize civilian population and actually make them give up their resistance and and and that was part of that big intimidation strategy which Russians have come up with but I think once the discovery of this heinous crimes uh the world Community was shocked seeing that happening and um and that was that was a very strong reaction to that and that was the one of the reasons but apart from just a reason to to support an underd DOA country which been attacked uh was really has intensified the support coming to Ukraine and all the platforms which were unlocked to Ukraine they’ve been make any difference you know the tanks which were provided the air defense systems the artillery they all have uh made a difference in the battlefield some believe that we have been just getting enough not to be defeated it but not enough to Prevail it still stands there as of course we wouldn’t be able to withstand without that support but at the same time you know some of the equipment which is coming uh and it’s not coming in time and it’s at at a high cost to the ukrainians uh at the moment we’ve been able to achieve major success in the Black Sea by pushing Russians out from the from the from the from the Black Sea pretty much destroying 50% of the Black Sea Navy we even without having a Navy on our own and we’ve able we’ve been able to push Russians out to the eastern part of the of the Black Sea and really have cleared up the way for the export of our food products to Ukraine Ukrainian counter offensive in in the northern summer of last year did not go uh well to be frank for three different reasons Russians had about N9 months before that they have heavily dug in built three lines of Defense everything was heavily mined and was very difficult to get go through we didn’t have enough of the right tools we didn’t have enough of the clear mining equipment but also the minute you are there on the field you just get um hammered with all the Intensive uh artillery Russian Artillery we didn’t have the fire adjust as the moment we still don’t have them we hope them they will be available sometime uh in the next 3 months as well as the right tools to be able to go through nevertheless um it’s now what two years and four months we’re still standing it’s it’s it was you know it was the unity of the Ukrainian people that I was amazed by not only myself but I think the rest of the world and uh I have never seen anything of that sort in Ukraine’s history it was really truly a birst of a Ukrainian Nation where everybody got United where everybody got got um um got together you know you’ve seen the footage probably of the farmers stealing tractors uh stealing uh tanks with their tractors or people with disabilities making M of cocktails or all those volunteer groups who red together and who’ been supplying those food or any kind of assistance to the to the people at the front lines Ukrainian volunteers are still out there Crown funding globally for for drones or for any other equipment they can Source uh globally um What’s um ukrainians are extremely grateful for the support they’ve seen for from Australia and I think that was like for me when I just got here um and was end of March and early April presenting the credentials I was able to see at the time it was coalition government in place and I was um really Amazed by the Swift reaction and I was in the Parliament building when President zalinsky spoke and addressed two Chambers um of of the Parliament and where he asked for for help and he specifically asked for Bush Masters and that was probably one of the fastest military assistance that was provided in the history of Australia at least what what I was told because if you can imagine that um it was morning uh when President spoke in Ukraine it was evening here late afternoon here and next day when prime minister Scott Morrison was providing uh was speaking to the media he actually provided a confirmation that those Bush Masters will be dispatched it was still the same day in Ukraine when the news were broke out that they will be coming and and I think in set time Bush Masters have become really a symbol and an icon of the Australian support uh to Ukraine and previously when when people would think about Australia in Ukraine they would come to typical stereotypes like kangaroos and and koalas but now Bushmaster as a brand is known in Ukraine as much as as of those unique animals you have and I’ve tested it myself I was able to visit Ukraine seven times since since my arrival here so every time you know you’re in a taxi and you start a conversation people hear about connection to Australia they ask about Bush mes now 120 of those have been supplied to Ukraine many and they have been saving many lives they Prov to be very efficient because of its design the way they are protected from beneath and they are very uh good at um withstanding the landmines and providing the protection for the movement of our personnel uh and on the troops I was very pleased that prime minister Anthony albanesi was able to come to Ukraine and it was only his um fifth week actually on the job and I remember when I initially started testing with the Department uh foreign affairs uh would there be a chance for him to visit Ukraine at the time he was uh scheduled to go to Madrid to visit the native Summit there and you know the response that I was getting was was kind of unknown or unlikely because it was only his uh initial several weeks on the job and making a trip to Ukraine it didn’t look like something possible but I was very pleased that soon that that that decision was reversed and pretty much five weeks later I ended up uh going to Ukraine with him and he spent there one day but it was a very important day uh for him he he was taken to bcha in npin these are the cities on the outskirts of of of Kev which were just liberated uh from the Russians 3 months before that and um you know I was there with him and we were taken to this place at the church and uh there were photographs and and a place that were shown there was a mass burial of of the people of that of bcha uh who were killed and executed and you know even for me who have kind of who knew the story who’ve been retelling the story to the media I was really shocked what I’ve heard there and you know once you you’ve seen it once you’ve seen those photographs once you you heard those witness accounts this is something you can never forget and um I was pleased that prime minister was able to do this trip and um and I’m sure it did have an impact on him and I was very pleased to see all this uh support from Australia coming um uh thereafter um why it’s important for Australia to continue supporting Ukraine well firstly we have to you know it’s pretty clear Russians have really dismantled the rules-based International System I mean if really everything um on the rules uh on the rules based order is now gone because Russia is a nuclear power state which has attacked a smaller neighbor more so it’s important to remind you that in 1994 Ukraine has voluntarily given up his nuclear weapons it was probably the biggest contribution to the Global Peace in itself at that time Ukraine had the third largest stock ball of nuclear weapons in Ukraine we of course can debate what was Ukraine capable of maintaining those weapons or not but we did make that contribution we gave them up they were transferred to the us some of our strategic bowas were dismantled and uh we signed up a document called Budapest memorandum and as part of the document Russia as well as the US and France and other countries have actually committed uh to assure us of our sovereignty and of our territorial Integrity which was blatantly violated by Russia in 2014 and then at much l later scale 8 years later and Russia have really dismantled the world order that existed after the second world war because if Ukraine cannot be protected who can be protected now what’s important is sometimes I hear is also in Australia that Ukraine is long way away uh from from Australia it’s something happening in Europe and uh probably Europe has to deal with that but we have to keep it in mind that it’s not about Ukraine it’s about Russia because Russia is a Pacific country it is actually much closer than than than than everybody thinks and as a Pacific Nation if Russia is more successful in Ukraine it will be more embolden to assert itself here in the Pacific to make it clear Russia is maintaining a large uh Navy Pacific Navy here and they have over 260 warships out there about 24 submarines including some nuclear submarines as well as well as about 100 aircraft in their uh Vaso bases and now we’ve seen all this intensive cooperation happening with North Korea the recent visit the visit of Vladimir Putin to Russia last week and they actually an agreement security agreement that was signed is a wakeup call for Australia because definitely Russia is demonstrating that they are interested in disrupting the Pacific as well and I think what’s the biggest problem here is of course Maritime security and the navigation free navigation of of the of the sea and actually disrupting your key trading partners Japan and South Korea so there is a great deal at stake out there for Australia making sure that we can win this war because it becomes part of your Regional security and part of your Regional priorities because whatever is happening out there it will have an implication uh here in the region and there is no two Russians there just one Russia no one Russia which is you know invading a neighbor out there in in Europe and a very friendly Russia here in the Pacific is the same Russia and we already see from that cooperation with North Korea how closely it is done allegedly North Koreans have supplied 5 million rounds of ammunition they also supplied some ballistic missiles which were used against Ukraine but also we don’t know what Russians are providing in exchange are they help will they be helping um uh North Koreans with further um with a nuclear program or with other ballistic programs how how much of that technical assistance will be provided and Technical expertise that Russians have committed to but definitely we already see an embolden Russia which is undermining uh Global Security which is undermining the Glo the the regional security here as well look what we are fighting for we are fighting for Freedom we are fighting for human rights we’re fighting for rule of law uh it’s uh the Russian invasion of Ukraine has really uh created massive problems internationally and one of those most active problems is food security Ukraine is one of the biggest uh producers of food globally we produce 10% of the global output of of wheat 177% of barley and we Supply 50% of the sunflower oil globally so many countries in in the Middle East and Africa depend on the supply of food from Ukraine initially when the Russians invaded us we were prevented from the export and we’ve seen the search in prices for food we’ve seen station in the Eastern parts of Africa and also many countries depending and we even seen the search in in prices for fish and chips in Australia for that matter as the price for vegetable oil has gone up and one the major reason for that was for instance the fact that um we couldn’t export our sunflower o to the global market markets uh we’ve seen the the the increased um price for energy resources and the major shift and the priority of many other of of different governments um to towards National Security because for Many Nations uh especially with large populations the price of food and the price of energy is very sensitive topic for instance for a country which is next door here like Indonesia which has 275 million people the price of oil and the price food is very sensitive a lot of food was coming also from Ukraine to Indonesia but at the end of the day for big countries with large populations it’s been kind of the key issues so the the the the sooner we can this war can end the the sooner we’ll be able to return to a proper um uh global commodity markets and to more stability and predictability in a way uh Australia has benefited from this wall I mean it was of course an inadvertent benefit with it Rising price prices for food as well as for Commodities the budget supp in Australia of last year and the main reason was you know was actually the the Russian invasion of Ukraine uh and that was driven by the you know the prices for Shell Gas the prices for iron ore and as well as as as of wheat wheat we’ve seen the same for oil prices and I think that also is an additional case of why Australia Canya should do more to to support Ukraine at the moment given all the kind of priorities and given what is at stake at the moment um what’s the cost of this war the cost of this war is is is extremely high we now estimate that we have 300,000 people uh 300,000 people with disabilities which was caused by War we have over 5 million people who are now displaced in Europe and these are primarily women with children uh we have another 7 million who’ve been internally displaced we now estimate that 25% of the Ukrainian territory is mined and and and will need a long time to clear uh the territory from those mines we’ve seen a huge impact on the Ukrainian environment as you know Wars are toxic and and even explosives this is extremely these are the chemicals and which make and pollute our soil and our water the deliberate destruction of the Kahoka Dam which was a big Dam and the Hydro power station in Ukraine last year has really created a catastrophe in the southern part of Ukraine by flooding lot spots of the country that water has hit many fertilizer storage places as well as landfills and really polluted a large parts of Ukraine which was and also part parts of agricultural land in the South lots of Destruction to to Ukrainian Natural Parks so it’s in a way it’s an acoy that that has been happening in Ukraine and in a way an environmental catastrophe which is ongoing um on the on on on the on the continuous basis most importantly it has a huge impact on the people of Ukraine the trauma of War and the way Society those still remaining resilient but you know as we go on and this war drags on the more destruction we see the more difficult it becomes and I could just you know speak it even on myself because you know having been here now for 2 years 3 months or four months I was able to go to Ukraine as I said before seven times so for me it was always also very important to understand what’s happening on the ground to assess the public sentiment and to see the evolution of that and when I was there recently in uh January I was um i’ I’ve seen that change of mood in a way and and and and and and how people are reacting we also you also have to keep in mind that for every Ukrainian who wakes up today and kind of looks in his phone checks the uh social media uh a lot of the social media has turned into bites because we wake up and we read about the relatives of our friends or their close ones or somebody they knew who had either wounded or got killed in the front lines and it’s ongoing now for such a long period of time so the issue of mental trauma and the will be one of the key issues for us to deal in to deal with for a long period of time Russians have deliberately been trying to destroy our uh Power uh generation and electricity distribution you know it’s as you know according to the international conventions of War these are war crimes that Russians have been committing but that’s been now ongoing for two years and a half and they have pretty much destroyed 50% of energy infrastructure and the main goal of this is to put pressure on the Ukrainian civilian population so that they could put pressure on on Ukraine to stop resisting the Russian invasion now we see blackouts in many different cities uh cities go dark Major Impact on Ukraine’s economy as industry is trying to keep up with with those blackouts because it’s to run your business if you don’t have electricity Supply and um so this is something we are going through uh more recently Ukraine was uh still believes there is a chance for diplomacy in a way and that was the reason why Ukraine has convened a major uh peace conference and the idea of this peace conference was to actually to renew trust towards the international law to renew trust to the UN Charter and Ukrainian leadership has invited 160 countries to come and join the peace Summit which was um in Switzerland uh last week or 10 days ago and we had 101 representatives there over 90 countries and also representatives of international organizations who showed up we were able to demonstrate uh to Russia and Russia was not invited to this event that we have the majority of the world and all countries were represented of all five different continents there were also many members and representatives of the global South and uh we have we wanted to demonstrate to Russia that that uh there are issues out there which which are very important and we have the support and the global solidarity with Ukraine the meeting was focused primarily on on three themes one thing was related to food security another one was related to nuclear safety and um radiation uh safety as well as to humanitarian issues related to the exchange of the presal war and return of the Ukrainian children nuclear safety is one of the key top priorities for us Russians have held the largest nuclear power plant in in Europe actually which is in Ukraine as as a hostage and uh there is a high chances anything can happen to that power plant and it can go into meltdown and that would be a major catastrophe not only for Ukraine but also for big parts of Europe and uh it was important to to emphasize to Russia that it’s uh not um it’s admissible for them uh to uh use nuclear as as a way to threaten us and keep the the civilian um infrastructure um uh sight uh as as as as as as a blackmail basically of of Ukraine uh so there was a call on Russia to stop doing it look uh I think I covered lots of ground I mean I could have missed many different parts but I think this is this is we’re getting there to the moment where I be welcoming your questions and happy to take them so feel free to ask anything you have in mind and I’ll will try to answer to the best of my ability thank you thank you man our hearts go out to you and your family and your people uh I bet it’s a critical time now as the US election is early November just over 4 months away how can the war be won by that date would it require simply extra Munitions or or other troops on the ground from NATO uh and would Russian allies join it in that Cas it’s it’s a terrible conundrum it is it’s not an easy one and of course we all understand that U whatever the outcome of the elections in the US will be uh we still believe that for the US to support Ukraine is not in a party interest but is a national interest to support us so we will uh we will rely on on the support of America no matter who’s there as the president if Donald Trump will become a president there is kind of something interesting that I want to kind of remind the public is um that that when he was the president first time and that was when he authorized the transfer of the anti-tank missiles to Ukraine um the javelins and it was under his leadership that we received them and those javelins actually played a major decisive role especially in the initial days of the Russian invasion where we were able to hit the Russian tanks and the Russian columns which were coming into the country uh of course we don’t know because a lot will be a lot will be there will be lots of uncertainty and unpredictability this is what we will be probably expecting with a Trump’s leadership now what’s important for Ukraine at the moment is of course getting them the military assistance we need and ammunition is probably number one priority we’ve seen how this invasion of Ukraine has really exposed the vulnerabilities of the defense industry uh globally and uh and now it’s extremely difficult to catch up with the demand on Ukraine and of course that pause of assistance from America for the past 6 months has really enabled Russia to open a new offensive for instance in har region because once you are starved of ammunition this is what the enemy sees and the enemy jumps on that on that opportunity and this is what we’ve seen Russians actually doing but also it’s important for Ukraine to get sufficient um number of air defense systems as well as artillery shells as well as uh fire jets I think the fire jets they can actually play a major role and be GameChanger in in in in the battlefield but also long range missiles and now that we’re also able to hit some of the Targets in Russia we’ve seen how it all affected the Russian offensive now in har region where we able to to hit some of their command posts in Russia or some of the troops stationed just outside um um in the Russian territory and it has really has stalled their offensive at at the moment but of course what’s important the most important thing of course for our Victory is to demonstrate that Unity uh that the countries stand together with Ukraine to withstand that attack we do believe Russian’s casualties are very high I mean we estimate that about 540,000 uh of the Russian soldiers were either killed or wounded so the the number Stagg if you just look at it and not any other country would be able to sustain it but because Russia has turned into a totalitarian country and totalitarian system they are still capable of maintaining that through their propaganda through the work with with with any resistance from within Russia but um it’s um it’s in a way this war that Russians have have started uh it’s it this is what’s going to bring down the regime in Russia the regime of Vladimir Putin it’s just a matter of time when it’s going to happen and of course we can cannot BET our strategy on on his demise but definitely uh the things which can really change the situation is is demonstrating that Ukraine can fight back that Ukraine can take for instance Crimea back and U and and Crimea is probably one of those uh weak spots for for Russia because a lot of the Russian myth around invasion of Ukraine was based on that myth of of of getting Crimea back into the Russian uh territory which is a big celebration and part of a major propaganda effort of what itself if we can demonstrate that to Russians that uh Crimea is untenable that can really precipitate the demise of Vladimir Putin which will eventually come we all know all the tickers um collapse and uh but it just of course a matter of time when it’s going to happen how many more ukrainians will be killed thank [Music] you pet Mari Aerospace Consulting was a very Illuminating speech and uh lecture I should say you uh what I’d like to know is which industry has survived the best in Ukraine and which has suffer the most that’s one question the other one is with aircraft m225 how is the Reconstruction of that airplane going if if any at all in terms of the industri which have industries that have survived probably the most robust industry in Ukraine is uh it and it Services Ukraine has 300,000 software engineers and uh they have been actually uh operating even under under under the circumstances we live in last year it industry has accounted for about7 billion dollar of of US dollars of income uh revenue for the country and it’s growing it’s probably the only sector which is currently growing despite the War uh you will be surprised but many Australian companies still use uh Ukrainian it Engineers uh for their backup as their backup offices and the work which is provided remotely for atlassian is one of those uh which has a big team in Ukraine Cana is also using teams in Ukraine and many other companies for instance and a publicly listed company Australian company called Aristocrat has it employs a thousand people in Ukraine the whole team which is producing games for phones is actually based in Ukraine which is still operating and is creating video games for instance um agriculture agriculture has suffered you know it’s difficult for agriculture we’re able to export but it still it’s not at the amount and levels that we used to export right and we have pretty much by inflicting damage to the Russian black seat Navy we’ve created a corridor for the export of our products but it’s still more expensive it’s also the matter of insurance for those um uh logistics companies to provide um and it’s it’s not an easy one also Farmers have suffered because all the big Traders which are usually International companies they hedging their risks and therefore the price on the domestic Market is extremely low uh for the farmers so it’s extremely difficult for them to actually make any any any profit and they often have to sell at the cost because it will either perish and we don’t have enough of the grain storage facilities because usually the what what we had that was kind of built on a cycle you know you get new one you sell and you kind of you know stretch it but once you have a pile up of of the products and you don’t have anywhere to store uh the prices stumble and you have to sell at a very discounted price to make sure you can still get any money out of it so the agricultural sector suffered but it’s still working it’s still operating and and where possible of course where where it’s no where there is no uh Battlefield heavy industry um is suffered like in in har for instance the city was also a big industrial city and Har is probably now getting hammered more than any other City a big city in Ukraine uh on the continuous basis so it’s difficult we’ve been able to kind of our defense industry is is is still operating though Russians have been targeted in that as well we are now welcoming more cooperation with other defense industry companies globally trying to get them going uh but of course um generally with a supply of limited supply of electricity or the when the fact that we have to balance off the supply of electricity is making it difficult for many for many Ukrainian Industries right and those which operate we you know we make everything sure that the economy is still functioning but you will be surpris you know when the war started for instance uh there was prediction that banking system would collapse but it didn’t you know it’s still operating right there was no run on the banks um also Ukrainian government was able to introduce um a digital transformation program in 2019 when President zalinsky was elected uh our Deputy Prime Minister uh Federal actually rolled out a major digital transformation program which was a digital ID which is in your phone and which includes your passport your your tax documents your driving license and and that that uh application turned out to be extremely helpful when the war broke out because once we got all those displaced people in Europe that digital it which 80% of population now had on their phones has enabled them to stay close to to Ukrainian government public services were continued you could start you could open a bank account remotely without showing up in the bank you could start a company also remotely but having that actually that program rolled out and and it actually was been you know extremely successful in terms of you know making sure that the society can function and public services could be provided for instance right yeah thank you the aircraft oh the aircraft look the aircraft it was it was you know it was a jewel that we were so proud of you know and and Maria aircraft um you know the largest uh cargo airplane in the world it was the only one that was out there um Australians have seen it it came to birth I think in 2017 and delivering some of the goods that were provided it often was deployed uh as an aircraft to deliver humanitarian assistance to African countries to Asian countries especially after some major uh calamities um that were happening and that that that airplane was out there U rebuilding that probably uh you know we’ll have to build it from scratch I’m not sure if it could be re um we actually I was there with the Prime Minister Anthony albanes at the side to see to see the the the remnants of that of that aircraft you know of course there is an investigation in Ukraine how come that aircraft was still there when the Russians came because there are a lot of questions what was behind it I mean why wasn’t the plane taken out of of Ukraine before that Invasion and there are still many questions to be answered uh but definitely it’s it’s a major lost asset and you know we all um I’m very sorry it all happened because it was really kind of a symbol for Ukraine uh to have that aircraft we’re very proud of it yeah um Richard spinski a new member of the of the um Institute um and B it was a very uh heartfelt and informative U um speech on leure two things um part my [Music] question um recently recently the U um the EU and NATO agreed to take Russian seized assets around the world Australia is part of that um I personally don’t think they’re doing enough that’s another matter how important is that to assist um Ukrainian people and the Ukrainian government to supply weaponry and other infrastructure you need to suain the Russian invasion and the second part of that do you think Australians as Citizens in our private capacity can do more in our own Arenas to keep that pressure on our governments and others thank you um yeah the the question of the Russian assets is very important uh because we now there are about 300 billion of the Russian assets um Sovereign assets abroad um most of them are in Europe and there have been lots of discussions at the high level primarily driven by the G7 countries as well as the EU on how those assets could be used for the benefit of Ukraine because forcing a nuclear country uh to pay for the damage that they’ve done is not an easy one and actually those Russian assets which are now Mo immobilized could be a way to punish Russia for uh what they’ve done and that could be a big the major investment into the future deter as we move on the the decision that was um made two weeks ago at the G7 meeting was to actually provide a $50 billion loan to Ukraine which is backed by the proceeds by backed by the interest which is generated from those uh seized uh assets and it’s it’s a big um positive development and um and those money will be used to support ukra Ukraine Ukrainian budget but also support Ukraine for the procurement of defense and whatever energy needs we may have um in terms of support I you know it’s it’s each one of you can contribute uh write a letter to your Member of Parliament write a letter to your Senator asking for support for Ukraine you can also be um active in social media supporting the country you can make a donation there are several Australian based Charities which are raising money for Ukrainian humanitarian needs uh one of them is uh driven by uh rotary uh of Australia together with the Ukraine Australian Ukrainian uh Federation uh called Ukraine crisis appeal uh there is another uh based um uh Australian based charity called future Ukraine which has also been raising money uh for Ukrainian humanitarian needs and so there are many different ways of how you can do it how you can contribute and apparently there also a direct way how you can chip in there is um it’s called United 24 which is a platform online and um and this ukra United 24 was launched by President zalinski two years ago and you can directly support uh Ukrainian Heth care needs you can support Ukraine’s education you can also make a donation to Ukraine’s military needs um if you feel like it and you can do it directly and securely uh from uh Sydney for instance and uh you can definitely do it yeah hello my name is yri immigrated to Australia with my family 14 BN in and now I’m just an Australian citizen with Ukrainian background so one of the things that I wanted to state was that uh me my friend here mentioned about the assets Russian assets that were proposed to be seized and unfortunately due to various legal constraints that they clearly said that they can’t be ceased but the interest generated from those assets will be used to help Ukraine which is a good thing but my main statement was to say for everyone here uh being a stragon I assume not many people were born in Ukraine or Des like I was and I’m very interested in history I believe that we are now uh facing a Polish moment uh back in 1939 uh when England and France declared war in Germany they just invaded Poland and uh for a year nearly they didn’t do anything was called the funny Wars everyone know and look what happened right so what I’m saying is that um the Ambassador mentioned that there will be a demise of Mr for and I’m pretty sure that in 1939 there would have been someone somewhere saying uh the demise of K is inevitable and they were both right but look what happened in between you know until the demise actually happen and that’s the point of going way we’re in extremely dangerous situation and I think that every member of civilized Community should do their admise to stop Putin it’s not the Russian people it’s the it’s Putin that’s doing it because Russian people the same as Ukrainian people they they’re not uh you know an evil Nation but the ruling class unfortunately has been and so that’s my point it’s a Polish moment and if we react like France and England did we may end up hopefully not with uh 50 million people lost in the second world war Brian M um retired um I have very simple question you see a lot on YouTube in particular and on the news you know the flashbangs of warfare there and War torn areas we don’t see cyber warfare um you have a very strong it um group and I just wondered what’s happening in that field yeah it’s um Ukraine is a target of the Cyber Russian cyber attacks and has been a target for the past 10 years and it’s been pretty Ruess to be frank and um in a way that um the period of time those eight years from 2014 to 20 uh 22 a lot of investment has come into our cyber capabilities but also what was important when the war broke out it was close cooperation with the private sector that happened it’s Ukrainian private sector but also International private sector our cooperation with companies like Amazon like Google and Microsoft and and also a number of other private providers and helped Ukraine withstand those cyber attacks initially and and I understand there is still lots of work which is ongoing but I think it was that ability of the government to find the solution and closely cooperate with the private sector which actually H helped us um uh to to to to to to deal with those um attacks also something which you know something that I’m hearing um everybody was predicting that of course the target would be uh critical infrastructure in a way the Soviet Legacy uh of that infrastructure has helped us in that way that it was still kind of quite analogous in a way it’s all operated so once you hit it with a Cyber attack you can often just reload the system and it would work again right so so that you know the system which is not as sophisticated as for instance some of your systems here which of course would be more vulnerable to that this is what helped Ukraine in that stage but definitely you know for especially for big uh data which was stored by government it was a way how you can secure that data how you can transfer it uh uh to uh safe locations and how you can prevent those attacks from happening but um you know especially those cyber attacks Russian state sponsored cyber attacks are Global you know and they are targeting Australian uh government a lot they are targeting your private businesses as well and and and it’s a clear threat and a lot of this operations in the gray Zone as they call it I mean something which is you know still difficult to prove the affiliation to the state sponsorship but this is what Russia and as well as Chinese are also doing but but Russians are in particular trying to disrupt many countries by actually doing those attacks thank you for the excellent presentation um oh sorry Mark Roberts Rec member um here in Australia we have what we can describe as some brain dead people who would rather bury military and redundant equipment of course I refer to the Ty now have you approached the Australian government again because my information is there’s 19 of these in storage in tville in the hanger yes they’ve been dissembled but they can be put back together if would you approach the government again and ask and we can ship them out then look we here on record we have a camera here and uh and yeah I’m grateful and every Ukrainian is grateful for what we we have received from from Australia and from Australian government if there is any equipment which is in Surplus and could be provided to Ukraine uh we’ll be uh uh we would highly appreciate and currently Ukraine has huge needs in armed personnel carriers to form some new brigades uh so we need more of the Bush Masters we need more of those m113s has been supplied any of those uh asls uh the same thing um there are some other helicopters in place and we will start the the discussions about tiger helicopters I mean once they have phased out here we could make use of them I think we can move through the type and story I think we just need to move you know it’s a decision of the government was and we respect that decision but um something that I’m in constant talks with the defense department as well as all the discussions which are happening between defense and um uh of Australia and Ukraine this is seeing what else could be provided something what else is in Surplus here which could be uh given to Ukraine um and uh especially in light of the huge needs that we have I mean at the moment especially when we look at the formation of the new brigade so one thing is train the people and the next thing is to make sure that these brigades have the armed equipment they have the artillery they have the protection and the weapons to fight with and this is something we hope to do more and we will we we rely on Australian’s support and we we hope that it will continue uh can I say on behalf of I USI New South Wales uh that it has been a real honor to have you with us today uh and uh thank you very much for your forthright and and very moving uh presentation and for reminding us as uh Elina seninsky is the first lady of Ukraine and wife of President sensy recently reminded us that although there are great oceans and thousands of kilometers between us and there are that there are no distances really for war and grief and if there is aggression somewhere in the world then no one can feel safe it is more than 2 years since Russia’s illegal and unprovoked invasion of your Homeland and even as We Gather here today Russia is in the midst of yet another concerted assault on Ukraine’s infrastructure and its energy facilities uh we can but offer our support and watch with profound admiration the resilience of the people of Ukraine who against tremendous odds and contrary to many pundits predictions continue to resist Russia’s aggression and when I was uh writing those words I was actually reminded of s Winston Churchill’s famous speech to the Canadian Parliament some two years after Nazi Germany’s illegal and unprovoked invasion of Poland as responding to Marshall patan’s comment um who was convinced that Germany would successfully invade Britain as it had done France and that in 3 weeks Britain would have its neck rung like a chicken some chicken Churchill said and with impeccable timing some neck can I is a small token can I present you with a certificate for 12 months honory membership of AI New South Wes an a USI pin and a scarf for your wife Liliana who I’m sure does a lot to support you and your your two young children thank you for that appreciate it [Music] [Applause] [Music]