Ukraine ambassador to Australia Vasyl Myroshnychenko (Image: AAP/Dan Himbrechts)

The Ukrainian community in Australia — including Ukrainian ambassador to Australia Vasyl Myroshnychenko — is calling for the government to expel Russia’s diplomatic staff following the country’s attempted annexation of four Ukrainian regions.

It follows Foreign Minister Penny Wong’s announcement that the government is “considering” expelling Russian ambassador Dr Alexey Pavlovsky following the country’s sham referendum to annex four regions of Ukraine. In response, Pavlovsky fronted the media to accuse Australians of being “brainwashed”, warning that if he were to be expelled from Australia, Australian ambassador to the Russian Federation Graeme Meehan would equally be expunged. 

“Reciprocity is a basic principle for interstate relations,” he said.

Myroshnychenko told Crikey if equality was the ambassador’s concern, then expelling a number of Russian staff was the right way to go.

“If we’re talking about reciprocity, then perhaps Australia for starters should aim to equal the number of diplomats at the Russian mission to the number of Australian ones posted in Moscow,” he said. 

Russia currently has an embassy in Canberra and consulates in Sydney, Queensland and South Australia. The offices of the Consulate-General of the Russian Federation didn’t reply to questions about staffing levels. But Australia has just three offices in Russia — its Moscow embassy and St Petersberg and Vladivostok consulates, which serve Russia, Armenia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan (along with an office in Serbia). The Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade was unable to provide Crikey with staffing level numbers.

Co-chair of the Australian Federation of Ukrainian Organisations (AFUO) Stefan Romaniw echoed Myroshnychenko’s calls. 

“Seven months of Russia’s terrorist actions in Ukraine should trigger every diplomatic tool available to Australia to condemn Russia,” he said. “[Pavlovsky] should not be allowed to hide behind diplomatic language and talk about the need for continued ‘dialogue and communication’ when the facts are there for anyone to see.” 

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese called for Russian diplomats to be expelled in April following the revelations of the Bucha massacre, prior to the election. Romaniw said his organisation wrote to Albanese’s office in July asking him to follow through.

“The AFUO wrote to the PM in July reminding him that as opposition leader he called on the Australian government after the Bucha massacres to expel Russian diplomats; that ‘sickening abuses being carried out by Russian forces’ must trigger immediate consequences; and that Australia must act in lockstep with European partners by ordering Russian diplomats and staff to leave Australia,” he said. 

So far no announcement has been made, though in late August the National Capital Authority terminated Russia’s lease agreement to build a new embassy in the Canberra suburb of Yarralumla due to unfinished construction. Ukraine is considering taking over the lease for its own new embassy, though Russia has launched legal action against Australia. 

Director of defence, strategy and national security at the Australian Strategic Policy Institute Michael Shoebridge tells Crikey expelling diplomats was a standard procedure. He supported the calls from the Ukrainian community. 

“An autocrat trying to dismember a sovereign state is in our interest to oppose here in the Indo-Pacific,” he said.

“I think showing solidarity with Ukraine and acting in concert with our European democratic partners makes sense.”

Limiting the number of Russian diplomatic staff could also limit Russia’s intelligence-gathering capabilities, with concerns any number of administrative or technical staff could be working as undeclared intelligence operatives.

“The Russian embassy has intelligence operations … and it’s normal Russian practice for some of those to be undeclared,” Shoebridge said. 

DFAT didn’t respond to Crikey’s request for comment by deadline.