My thanks to Paul Daley of Gowrie for his letter (CW 14 December). I do like a can of VB, and being an old Narrabundah boy, I am also partial to the occasional schooner of Resch’s as well.
The Gaza/Israeli war has bumped the long-running Russian invasion of Ukraine off the front pages, but that deadly conflict continues, and a fickle West cannot lose sight of it.
Last week, I saw a documentary on Channel 9 starring Canberra’s very own, much respected journalist Chris Uhlmann, who travelled to Ukraine with a number of ACT residents to highlight some great individual contributions that ordinary Canberra citizens are making to the Ukrainian war effort.
Chris was personally thanked for his efforts by heroic Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, and his documentary brought home the bitter unrelenting struggle by Ukrainians against Putin’s vicious invasion.
The local Ukrainian community and supporters continue their vigil outside the Russian Embassy every Saturday and every weekday at lunchtime. They have raised, and continue to raise, money for stretchers, mine detectors, and other desperately needed items.
The biggest danger that Ukraine faces is the West losing interest. Putin is a very nasty but smart man, and he is banking on it. He is in this for the long haul. US President Joe Biden had to go into contortions to get his latest Ukrainian support package through the Congress and Senate.
I have said before that Europe could do more – especially Germany. While Germany has been exemplary in apologising for Nazi atrocities in WWII and making amends, in my view it still owes a blood debt to Poland and Ukraine for all the Poles and Ukrainians it slaughtered in WWII. As the most powerful country in Western Europe, Germany could increase its arms production and supply Ukraine’s needs pretty much by itself if need be. It would be great for Germany’s image if it could be seen as the saviour of Ukraine.
Britain and France could do more, and whilst not owning a blood debt to Ukraine, they do to Poland. Helping Ukraine helps Poland. Britain and France did nothing to help Poland in September 1939, and Britain, along with the USA, betrayed Poland to Stalin from 1943 to 1945.
Australia’s best contribution so far has been the Bushmaster armoured vehicle, beloved by Ukrainian troops, as Chris Uhlmann found out.
We have about 1,050 of them, and there is no reason we can’t ship, say, 24 a week to Ukraine in our C17 transport aircraft. We have eight C17s, and they each can carry four Bushmasters.
That’s six C17s going to Ukraine once a week. We could reopen production lines (if we have not already), and replace the Bushmasters going to Ukraine with new ones. I’d suggest we take the opportunity to build extras for ourselves (say a force of 1,200 or so). In a six-month period, we could send 500 bushmasters to Ukraine – a great gesture to help a brave people.
Slava Ukraini and a merry Christmas to you all!
