29.9 C
Canberra
Saturday, December 14, 2024

Australia adds to Russia export embargo

Pure-bred horses, truffles and wine are among a slate of new luxury goods that cannot be exported to Russia under the expansion of Australian sanctions.

The further sanctions come a day after Ukraine’s ambassador to Australia called for a moratorium on all Russian goods entering the country as the Kremlin is accused of committing war crimes during its invasion.

The new sanctions include everything from tobacco to leather and furs to musical instruments on top of an already announced export ban on aluminium ores.

Foreign Minister Marise Payne will travel to Brussels on Tuesday for a NATO foreign ministers meeting, as new action is considered against Russia over its illegal invasion of Ukraine.

Senator Payne said the deliberate shelling of civilians, rape as a weapon of war and mass murder by Russian soldiers are “horrific beyond description”.

“What is important is that the international community does everything it can to hold Russia to account for their actions,” she told the Nine network.

“The strongest possible focus on ensuring that Russia pays a cost for these actions.”

Australia has sent two professionals to the International Criminal Court to investigate alleged war crimes in Ukraine. 

The foreign minister says her conversations in Brussels will be about ensuring Australia is apart of coordinated actions against Russia.

“It’s an opportunity to continue and to strengthen that international coordination which has been working very strongly in the past month in relation to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine,” she said.

Senator Payne also confirmed the Russian ambassador was called into the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade again last week, saying “we will continue to review (expelling diplomats) at the highest levels of government”.

Ukraine’s ambassador to Australia Vasyl Myroshnychenko has called for a strong tranche of sanctions as opposed to the incremental approach the West has taken so far.

“To be frank, the strategy which has been picked of incremental sanctions, it was not the right one,” he told AAP.

“Of course, they go step by step and they make them stronger. But to fully isolate Russia, sanctions have to be very painful and abrupt.”

Mr Myroshnychenko said a weak response from the West after Russia annexed Crimea from Ukraine in 2014 emboldened the Kremlin to launch its invasion in 2022.

“Russia killed 14,000 Ukrainians in the first Russian-Ukraine war and everybody kept on buying Russian products,” he said

“(Europe) completed the second Nord Stream and Russia imposed heavy leverage over Europe for the gas supplies and then they totally control it. The German economy and the Italian economy depends on that gas.”

To date, Australia has imposed sanctions on more than 500 individuals and entities related to the regime of Russian President Vladimir Putin.

In addition, $65 million in humanitarian funding is being provided to help the most urgent needs of the Ukrainian people, along with $116 million of defensive military assistance.

A number of world leaders are pressing for tougher sanctions on Russia in the wake of indications the country’s forces were behind the death of hundreds of civilians in the Ukrainian town of Bucha.

Russia denied the reports, saying Ukraine had staged an event for Western media.

Mr Myroshnychenko told AAP the actions were a crime against humanity.

“We see civilians’ dead bodies lying around the city, many of them have their hands tied up. We are now collecting the evidence from the witnesses,” he said.

Get all the latest Canberra news, sport, entertainment, lifestyle, competitions and more delivered straight to your inbox with the Canberra Daily Daily Newsletter. Sign up here.

More Stories

Former Liberal minister Kevin Andrews dead at 69

Former Liberal minister Kevin Andrews is being remembered for his service to Australia after he died following a battle with cancer.
 
 

 

Latest

canberra daily

SUBSCRIBE TO THE CANBERRA DAILY NEWSLETTER

Join our mailing lists to receieve the latest news straight into your inbox.

You have Successfully Subscribed!