Ukraine war: President Zelensky asks Australia for armoured vehicles, prepares for fresh Russian attacks

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky appealed directly to Australian lawmakers on Thursday for more help in its war against Russia, including armoured vehicles and tougher sanctions.

He called for Russian vessels to be banned from international ports.

“We need more sanctions against Russia, powerful sanctions until they stop blackmailing other countries with their nuclear missiles,” Zelensky said through an interpreter. He specifically asked for Australian-manufactured Bushmaster four-wheel-drive armoured vehicles.

“You have very good armoured personnel vehicles, Bushmasters, that could help Ukraine substantially, and other pieces of equipment,” Zelensky said.

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While the Ukrainian capital Kyiv was 15,000 kilometres (9,300 miles) from the Australian capital Canberra, Zelensky said Australia was not safe from the conflict which threatened to escalate into a nuclear war. He suggested that a Russian victory over Ukraine would embolden China to declare war on Taiwan.

“The most terrible thing is that if we do not stop Russia now, if we do not hold Russia accountable, then some other countries of the world who are looking forward to similar wars against their neighbours will decide that such things are possible for them as well,” Zelensky said.

Zelensky also said Russia would not have invaded Ukraine if Moscow had been punished for the 2014 downing of Malaysia Airlines Flight MH17 in Ukraine.

Two weeks ago, the Australian and Dutch governments launched a legal case against Russia at the International Civil Aviation Organisation to hold Moscow accountable for its alleged role in the missile strike that killed all 298 people on board. Of the victims, 196 were Dutch citizens and 38 were Australian residents.

Prime Minister Scott Morrison had earlier told the president that Australia would provide additional military help including tactical decoys, unmanned aerial and unmanned ground systems, rations and medical supplies. He later said the additional help would cost AU$25 million (US$19 million).

“You have our prayers, but you also have our weapons, our humanitarian aid, our sanctions against those who seek to deny your freedom and you even have our coal,” Morrison said.

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Australia has already promised or provided Ukraine with AU$91 million (US$68 million) in military help, AU$65 million (US$49 million) in humanitarian help and 70,000 metric tons (77,200 US tons) of coal.

Earlier Thursday, the government announced Australia was imposing an additional 35 per cent tariff on all imports from Russia and Belarus starting April 25. Oil and energy imports from Russia will be banned from that date. Exports to Russia of Australian aluminium ore will also be banned.

Sanctions have been imposed on more than 500 individuals and entities in Russia and Belarus. The sanctions cover 80 per cent of the Russian banking sector and all government entities that handle Russian sovereign debt.

New Russian attacks in the southeast region

Ukrainian forces are preparing for new Russian attacks in the southeast region where Moscow’s guns are now trained after its assault on the capital Kyiv was repelled, President Volodymyr Zelensky said on Thursday.

Five weeks into an invasion that has blasted cities into wastelands and created more than four million refugees, US and European officials said Russian president Vladimir Putin was misled by his generals about the dire performance of Russia’s military.

Tough resistance by Ukrainian forces has prevented Russia from capturing any major city, including the capital Kyiv, which it assaulted with armoured columns from the northwest and east.

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Moscow says it is now focusing on “liberating” the Donbas region – two southeastern provinces partly controlled by separatists Russia has backed since 2014.

In an early morning video address, Zelensky said Russian troop movements away from Kyiv and the northern city of Chernihiv were not a withdrawal but rather “the consequence of our defenders’ work”.

Ukraine was seeing “a build-up of Russian forces for new strikes on the Donbas and we are preparing for that,” he said.

That includes Mariupol, once a city of 400,000 people, where most buildings have been damaged or destroyed in four weeks of constant Russian bombardment and siege. A convoy of Ukrainian buses set out for the port city on Thursday to try to reach trapped civilians, Deputy Prime Minister Iryna Vereshchuk said.

The United Nations believes thousands of people have died there, many buried in unmarked graves.

The past week has seen a Ukrainian counteroffensive, recapturing destroyed suburbs of Kyiv and strategic towns and villages in the northeast and southwest. Russia declared on Monday that it was scaling back its offensive near the capital and the city of Chernihiv in the north, in what it called a trust-building gesture for peace talks.

Russia drafts 134,500 new conscripts, ‘not for Ukraine’

President Vladimir Putin on Thursday signed a decree ordering 134,500 new conscripts into the army as part of Russia’s annual spring draft, but the defence ministry said the call-up had nothing to do with the war in Ukraine.

The order came five weeks into Russia’s invasion, which has run into fierce Ukrainian resistance. Russian Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu said on Tuesday that none of those called up would be sent to any “hotspots”.

UK sanctions Russian ‘propagandists and state media’

The UK on Thursday announced new sanctions against Russian “propagandists”, including a well-known television presenter, and two Kremlin-funded media operations accused of spreading “lies and deceit” about the invasion of Ukraine.

The 14 latest sanctions follow several previous rounds of penalties against more than 1,000 Russian and Belarusian individuals and entities in response to Moscow’s war in its western neighbour.