Members of the Australian-Ukrainian community will protest Tuesday in Canberra against Russia’s upcoming presidency of the UN Security Council. Rally organizers said in a statement that “for the first time in world history, an aggressor and state sponsor of terrorism will be the president of the Security Council.”
Russia’s ambassador to Australia, Alexey Pavlovsky, believes support for Ukraine in Australia is misguided. He claims the Australian public has been “brainwashed” and has ignored Russia’s motives for invading Ukraine. Authorities in Moscow have said they intended to "demilitarize and denazify" Ukraine.
Pavlovsky has also condemned as “biased” allegations made by the International Criminal Court (ICC) that Russian President Vladimir Putin has committed war crimes in Ukraine. The allegations focus on the deportation of Ukrainian children from occupied areas of Ukraine. A warrant for Putin’s arrest has been issued.
Authorities in Moscow have denied the allegations and denounced the arrest warrant as “outrageous”.
“First of all, I would like to see these reports,” Pavlovsky told the Australian Broadcasting Corp. Monday. “From what I have seen, so far, I gather that the bodies you are referring to are more than biased. They have a tunnel vision. They choose not to notice the ample evidence of the war crimes committed by the Ukrainian side. So, my point is that any investigation should be unbiased.”
Russia is not an ICC member country, and the Hague-based court has no authority there.
But President Putin could be arrested should he travel to any of the ICC’s 123 member states.
Australia has committed $680,000 and three staff members to support the International Criminal Court investigation into alleged Russian war crimes.
Canberra is also the largest non-NATO contributor to Kyiv’s war effort, supplying missiles and armored personnel carriers.
Since the invasion began more than a year ago, Australia has imposed sanctions on hundreds of Russian politicians, including President Putin, military commanders and businesspeople. They are the most sweeping penalties Australia has ever placed on another country.
