Prime Minister Anthony Albanese can expect an invitation to visit the Ukraine capital when the war-torn European nation’s president calls.
Ukrainian ambassador to Australia Vasyl Myroshnychenko says there will soon be a call between Mr Albanese and President Volodymyr Zelenskiy and an official invitation will be extended.
Mr Myroshnychenko does not expect Australia’s policy on Ukraine to change, after having talks with Labor’s Penny Wong just days before she was sworn in as foreign minister.
“Of course I hope to see Anthony Albanese in Kyiv very soon,” he told AAP on Monday.
“I look forward to working closely with the prime minister’s office, with Penny Wong and the new defence minister and deputy prime minister as well.”
Speaking at an energy conference at the Australian National University alongside European European Union ambassador to Australia Michael Pulch, Mr Myroshnychenko urged the West to cease buying Russian fossil fuels.
He said if Russia was allowed to continue to sell gas to Europe, it could sustain war in Ukraine for another two years.
“Russia has weaponised energy and they’ve been very skilful at that,” he said.
“It’s time to get ready for a shock. We need to phase out Russian gas altogether.”
He said Ukraine would continue to buy Australian coal, as most power stations in his country were coal-fired.
“We’ll be buying more of your coal because we need it,” he said.
“We’ve also been sourcing uranium here in Australia.”
Previously dependent on Russia to fuel its nuclear power stations, Ukraine has been diversifying its supply in recent years.
