The decision to begin advertising internally for a new head of mission means that Australia’s current ambassador to Ukraine, Bruce Edwards, is unlikely to ever return to the post in Kyiv.
The country’s ambassador to Australia, Vasyl Myroshnychenko, also revealed that Australia was missing out on direct access to sensitive briefings and information by not having a diplomat on the ground in Kyiv.
Opposition foreign affairs spokesman Simon Birmingham said the time was “well overdue” to reopen the embassy in Kyiv considering the overwhelming majority of foreign missions had reopened last year. “We have managed difficult situations over the years, including with embassies in Afghanistan and Iraq that delivered the practical benefits of representation, even in environments of great complexity.
“Australian embassies have been staffed in countries during wartime very commonly – for example in Afghanistan the embassy in Kabul was actually attacked by the Taliban,” he said. “And it’s frankly embarrassing, in view of what President Zelensky has said asking for Australia’s return, that we haven’t done so when our allies and partners have.”
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