London: I have just returned from a week in Ukraine and I can’t stop thinking about it.
History has judged Neville Chamberlain − who led Britain into World War II − poorly for his infamous 1938 observation of the conflict between Nazi Germany and Czechoslovakia as a “quarrel in a far away country, between people of whom we know nothing”.
Less than two years later, of course, the Nazis were bombing London.
Police officers inspect a crater in front of a damaged residential building hit by a Russian strike in Kharkiv, Ukraine, on Wednesday. Credit: AP
The plight of Ukraine following Russia’s invasion in February 2022 shocked a generation not used to this scale of conflict on mainland Europe, and it has dominated front pages and news bulletins daily since. For a while, it seemed to unite the West in ways we hadn’t seen in years.
If, distance wise, Prague was in a country far away from London then Kyiv to Canberra is in another galaxy. A quarrel in a far away country, between people about whom − most of us at least − know nothing.
But that’s not quite true. We do have skin in the game. Ten years ago, we woke up to the news that 38 people who called Australia home died along with more than 260 others when Malaysian Airlines flight MH17 was shot down over Ukraine by Russia-backed separatist forces. The federal government has, since 2018, maintained that Russia was responsible under international law, based on the strong body of evidence collected by investigators.
And 2024 is not 1938 anyway. While geography will always be an important determinant of how any nation assesses its national security, it is no longer the main driver it once was. Social media bots, disinformation on TikTok and cyber warfare are global and almost entirely free of national border constraints.
For a while, the Australian government seemed to appreciate the stakes in Ukraine. A few months after taking government, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese visited Kyiv and appeared genuinely moved by the courage on display.
As his Defence Minister Richard Marles later put it: “We stand with Ukraine in support of its courageous people and also in defence of a fundamental principle − the right of every sovereign nation to be secure in its own borders and to determine its own future.”
Australians have blindly accepted Albanese’s line on this for far too long
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28.03.2024
London: I have just returned from a week in Ukraine and I can’t stop thinking about it.
History has judged Neville Chamberlain − who led Britain into World War II − poorly for his infamous 1938 observation of the conflict between Nazi Germany and Czechoslovakia as a “quarrel in a far away country, between people of whom we know nothing”.
Less than two years later, of course, the Nazis were bombing London.
Police officers inspect a crater in front of a damaged residential building hit by a Russian strike in Kharkiv, Ukraine, on Wednesday. Credit:........
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