Australian Defence Minister Peter Dutton warned of the impending Russian invasion of Ukraine, saying that the region is on the brink of an all-out conflict, despite Moscow announcing a partial troop withdrawal from the Ukrainian border.
Russia's invasion of Ukraine is already underway, according to Australia's defence minister Peter Dutton.
— Flash News (@FlashNewsAU) February 18, 2022
In an interview with Sky News, he said there was very little hope of President Vladimir Putin backing down at this stage.#FLASHNEWS pic.twitter.com/30SsrLz4Fs
While speaking with Australian TV programme Today, Dutton said, “You would expect that President (Vladimir) Putin, who obviously can’t be taken at his word, is manufacturing some sort of trigger or is in the process of executing the final stages of his plan to go into Ukraine.” To this effect, Dutton referenced the recent cyber-attacks targeting Ukraine and Russia assembling ships and conducting drills with other nations in the Black Sea.
Additionally, Dutton said a diplomatic solution for the brewing crisis would take an “11th-hour miracle.” “There are lots of European leaders who have tried to avert this, but it seems President Putin is pretty intent on his action and direction,” he remarked. French President Emmanuel Macron and German Chancellor Olaf Scholz met with Putin in Moscow to dissuade Russia from invading and while there have been some positive indications, Western intelligence experts continue to believe that an invasion is imminent.
“That [war] really is going to result in the loss of life, the loss of innocent life, and we’ve seen it before in Eastern Europe. We don’t want it repeated, but we live in a very uncertain world,” Dutton added.
When questioned about Australia’s support for Ukraine, Dutton rejected the possibility of sending Australian forces but said that the Morrison government is working closely with the United States (US), the United Kingdom (UK), and other partners.
Defence Minister Peter Dutton on radio this morning: "There's no way that Australia's committing troops to go and fight in the Ukraine" #7NEWS #auspol
— Jennifer Bechwati (@jenbechwati) February 15, 2022
Russia has amassed approximately 130,000 troops near the Ukrainian border and stationed warships in the Black Sea. While Western nations have been pushing for a diplomatic solution to the ongoing border crisis, Moscow remains firm on its demand to restrict Ukraine from joining the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO).
US President Joe Biden, for his part, has emphasised that neither the US nor NATO have missiles in Ukraine and have no future plans to do so, addressing one of the demands laid out in Russian President Vladimir Putin’s security proposal.
Nevertheless, tensions between the West and Russia have further intensified after Ukraine accused Moscow-backed separatists of carrying out artillery fire in eastern Ukraine. Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba said, “The enemy fired at the Ukrainian territories with heavy artillery forbidden by the Minsk Agreement.”
Furthermore, Kuleba and his British counterpart Liz Truss accused Russia of spreading disinformation against Ukraine and of blaming the country for the incident. Along these same lines, British Prime Minister Boris Johnson called the artillery fire a Russian pretext for invading Ukraine.