At least 20 people have contacted Ukraine’s embassy in Australia to express an interest in joining the fight against Russia.
But the embassy says it is warning those people to “check Australian legislation”, after Scott Morrison also cautioned citizens against travelling to the conflict zone in Ukraine.
The Australian cabinet’s national security committee will discuss the latest developments when it meets on Tuesday, including the legal status of the new legion for international volunteers that Ukraine is assembling.
Volodymyr Shalkivskyi, the chargé d’affaires at Ukraine’s embassy in Australia, said it had been contacted by “at least 20” people expressing an interest in travelling to the country to fight.
“I am telling them that I don’t have any instructions yet,” Shalkivskyi told Guardian Australia.
“I’m telling them they need to check Australian legislation because we don’t want for them to get into trouble.”
Shalkivskyi said he expected numbers to be higher from countries in the immediate region. “In terms of Australia, it’s a very complicated story.”
The caution about travelling into the conflict zone comes as the Australian government confirms it will send an initial $4m in funding for military assistance to Ukrainian forces, which will be used for nonlethal military equipment and medical supplies.
A further sum for Nato’s Ukrainian trust fund is being finalised for “lethal aid”, which will go towards the supply of weapons to Ukrainian fighters, as well as potential support for cyber-attacks.
On Sunday, Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, said a new foreign legion for international volunteers was being assembled, with an appeal for anyone in the global community interested in fighting for democracy to join.
“This is the beginning of a war against Europe, against European structures, against democracy, against basic human rights, against a global order of law, rules and peaceful coexistence,” Zelenskiy said.
“Anyone who wants to join the defence of Ukraine, Europe and the world can come and fight side by side with the Ukrainians against the Russian war criminals.”
But Morrison said the government’s clear advice to all Australians was not to travel to Ukraine, and said the legalities of whether citizens could join Zelenskiy’s proposed foreign legion were “unclear”.
“Our law sets out arrangements where people can be involved in official activity by a sovereign state, which Ukraine obviously qualifies for, but the nature of these arrangements are very uncertain,” Morrison said.
Under the Criminal Code, it is an offence for an Australian to enter a foreign country with the intention of engaging in hostile activity, unless it is done as part of “the person’s service in any capacity in or with the armed forces of the government of a foreign country”.
Morrison said his national security committee would “discuss these matters further tomorrow”, but he would “counsel against making assumptions about the legality of such activity at this point”.
“I can understand absolutely the strong feelings and the motivations for people to go and do that, but I would say at this time the legality of such actions are uncertain under Australian law.”
The treasurer Josh Frydenberg said that under Australian law, citizens could not go and fight in a conflict zone, “unless they’re fighting with a foreign government and a foreign army”.
“Do not go into the conflict zone,” he told ABC radio.
By contrast, the UK foreign secretary, Liz Truss, said on the weekend that British citizens who wanted to join the fight in Ukraine would “absolutely” have her support.
The Australian foreign minister, Marise Payne, said it was “very important for individuals who may seek to do this to be clear of the provisions of Australian laws that may apply to their activity”.
“Frankly, I would strongly encourage them to observe the travel advice, which is do not travel,” Payne told reporters in Sydney.
Australia also updated its travel advice on Monday to urge Australians not to travel to Russia.
Payne said this was “because of the deteriorating security environment and also the military conflict with Ukraine”. She noted there had been anti-war demonstrations and protests in Russia.
“It is certainly in the interest of Australians who are in Russia to take this travel advice seriously and to to leave by commercial or private means as soon as they’re able to,” Payne said.
On Monday, Morrison said details of the lethal aid package were being finalised with Nato, along with a package of humanitarian assistance.
He said the humanitarian package would be “significant” and would assist Poland and other neighbouring countries manage the large number of refugees fleeing Ukraine.
The United Nations estimates that at least 368,000 people have already fled their homes in Ukraine, with as many as 4.5 million to follow if the fighting continues to spread.
Waits of up to 70 hours have been reported at some of the nine border crossings into Poland, due to the sheer volume of people attempting to leave, and as Ukrainian officials attempt to stop men aged between 16 and 60 from leaving the country.
Morrison also criticised the “reckless” threat from Russia to put its nuclear deterrence forces on high alert, and said the “swift” and “significant” response from the international community demonstrated that the invasion had “focused the minds of the world”.
“I think the advance in Ukraine has not gone to quite the timetable or plan that I think Russia expected,” he said.
Frydenberg said that Australia was concerned that the invasion into Ukraine was just the first step for president Vladimir Putin’s expansionist plans.
“Vladimir Putin starts with Ukraine, but who’s next? That is the question,” he said.
A raft of sanctions imposed by the Australian government came into effect at midnight on Sunday, including financial sanctions and travel bans on Putin and remaining permanent members of Russia’s security council: foreign minister Sergei Lavrov, defence minister Sergei Shoigu, prime minister Mikhail Mishustin and internal affairs minister Vladimir Kolokoltsev.
“President Putin, foreign minister Lavrov and defence minister Shoigu are directly responsible for Russia’s unprovoked and unlawful further invasion of Ukraine,” the government said in a joint statement from Morrison, Frydenberg, Payne and defence minister Peter Dutton.
“It is exceedingly rare to designate a head of state, and reflects the depth of our concerns.”
Other leaders who have faced similar sanctions in the past include Robert Mugabe of Zimbabwe, Muammar Gaddafi of Libya and Bashar al-Assad of Syria.
