The head of Ukraine’s embassy in Australia says he cannot remain “diplomatically polite” when his parents spend their nights in a bomb shelter in Kyiv, and has called for the Russian ambassador to be expelled.
Volodymyr Shalkivskyi issued the plea to the Australian government as he spoke about how his parents, aged in their 70s, had rebuffed suggestions to flee Ukraine’s capital and were now asking for molotov cocktail recipes.
“They’re making sandwiches [for] our military and they spend the nights in bomb shelters,” Shalkivskyi, the chargé d’affaires at Ukraine’s embassy in Australia, said on Thursday.
“As my father told me, two nights in a bomb shelter is enough to completely change any pro-Russian sentiment that you have in your heart.”
Shalkivskyi also relayed a message he had received from his mother, 73, after she looked out from the balcony on the seventh floor of her apartment building in northern Kyiv.
“‘I think it’s a good position. Can you send me a recipe of molotov cocktail?’”
The Australian government has ratcheted up sanctions against Russian political, military and business figures over the invasion of Ukraine, but has stopped short of expelling Russian diplomats at this stage saying it wants to keep open lines of communication.
Shalkivskyi told the National Press Club in Canberra countries including Australia needed to “use all means that we have in our disposal in order to fight back”.
He said while in his line of work he usually stuck with “diplomatic narratives”, children had died in shelling.
“I am not in the position to be diplomatically polite. Having my parents in bomb shelters, it makes you kind of more decisive,” Shalkivskyi said.
“Yes, I’d like Russian ambassador to be expelled. I’d like to have a boycott of all Russian supply routes and services in Australia. I’d like to stop any shipping companies to enter territorial waters. I’d like Australia to join the fight in countering Russian propaganda.”
The comments came after Ukrainian authorities said Russian bombs had “completely destroyed” a hospital in Mariupol. Local authorities said at least 17 people had been wounded in the shelling of the complex, which has children’s and maternity wards.
In January, the Russian ambassador to Australia, Alexey Pavlovsky, gave a lengthy press conference in Canberra in which he denied the buildup of Russian troops near the border with Ukraine was a sign of aggression.
Since then, the Russian embassy in Canberra has repeated the line that Russia is engaged in a military operation to “demilitarise” Ukraine.
Shalkivskyi said Putin had made a number of miscalculations, including whether the west was divided and how quickly Russian forces could capture Kyiv.
He said Ukraine was engaging in dialogue with Russia, but would not surrender its freedom. “We belong to the European family and there is no way we will give up,” he said.
Shalkivskyi said he had received calls from Australians seeking to join Ukraine’s foreign legion of volunteers to fight against Russian forces, but he did not know how many had actually travelled to the country.
The Australian government has cautioned citizens against travelling to Ukraine to fight on either side, saying it would be dangerous and legally ambiguous.
Under the Criminal Code, it is an offence for an Australian to enter a foreign country to engage 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”.
That means whether such travel is legal hinges on whether international volunteers will actually be considered full members of Ukraine’s armed forces.
Pressed on that point, Shalkivskyi said he did not have “a lot of information because it’s just started” but believed the foreign legion was “part of our defence force”.
While he confirmed the embassy would “facilitate” people who wanted to travel to join the legion, such as by supplying contact details, Shalkivskyi also urged them to check Australia’s laws and make their own “adult choice”.
“I always stress that we do not want you guys to get in trouble on your way back home, so please check the legislation,” he said.
Shalkivskyi said he understood that the first shipment of supplies that left Australia bound for Ukraine last week was “non-lethal equipment”.
Defence said on Thursday a second RAAF C-17A Globemaster flight had now delivered “defensive military assistance” to the Ukrainian government.
The Australian government has pledged $70m in lethal military aid and Shalkivskyi said he understood that aspect would largely be coordinated by Nato.
The opposition leader, Anthony Albanese, said Russia had “trampled fundamental principles” and “inflicted terrible injury and death on civilians”.
Addressing the Lowy Institute on Thursday, Albanese said Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, had “shown incredible courage and leadership in extraordinarily difficult circumstances”.
But Albanese said there were “many reasons to be concerned” about the “no limits” partnership that Russia and China formalised just weeks before the invasion of Ukraine, in light of Beijing’s “growing assertiveness in our region”.
The defence minister, Peter Dutton, said on Thursday it would be wrong to assume Putin’s “only ambition” was to take Ukraine, or that Xi Jinping’s ambitions were “restricted just to Taiwan”.
Dutton said Australia must therefore “provide a deterrence effect” and work closely with its allies. With the election looming, the Australian government announced plans for a major expansion of the Australian defence force over the coming two decades.
