Christopher Pyne: Ukraine is not a perfect country but it is better than Russia’s mafia state

Ukraine’s government and citizens have shown immense bravery in fighting back against a Mafia-like Russian President with a madcap ideology, writes Christopher Pyne.

As I predicted in Pyne on Monday on January 3, the crisis involving Russian bullying of Ukraine has come to a head. Ukraine and Russia are at war.

Ukraine is fighting bravely. Of course they are; they are fighting for their country and their way of life.

Having achieved democracy, why would they want a Russian-style kleptocracy imposed on them from Moscow?

If Australia was invaded, we would react the same way. We would fight any aggressor who wanted to dominate and persecute our families and neighbours.

Damage to the upper floors of a building in Kyiv after it was reportedly struck by a Russian rocket. Picture: AFP

Ukrainian service members look for and collect unexploded shells after fighting with Russian forces. Picture: AFP

The Ukrainian government isn’t perfect. There is corruption, nepotism, mistaken priorities and questionable government activity against opponents. But it’s a lot better than the mafia state created by President Vladimir Putin.

The Ukrainian Defence Force and the people of Ukraine have, and will, put up a real fight against the Russian aggressor.

The vision of the old man being run over in his car by a swerving Russian tank, flattened and reversed over, then surviving, is a metaphor for the resilience of the Ukrainian people.

History is replete with examples of seemingly small states facing insurmountable odds against a much larger foe, proving themselves more than capable of inflicting pain on their opponent and showing that they are hard to digest.

Russian President Vladimir Putin has created a mafia state. Picture: Getty Images

The Serbians effectively defeated the might of the Austro-Hungarian Empire in the First World War, until Germany stepped in with overwhelming force to assist the aggressor to defeat the smaller opponent.

Again in World War II, while Russia invaded Finland early in the war, expecting a short, successful campaign, the Finns, despite being utterly outnumbered, fought bravely and so well that they repulsed the then Soviet Union.

It took a huge effort for the Finns to be defeated at great cost to Joseph Stalin’s military.

Putin may well have expected a brief war in Ukraine.

He even called on the Ukrainian Defence Force to lay down their arms and return home.

Then he called on the Ukrainians to overthrow their president, Volodymyr Zelensky, as if he thought the Ukrainians would be too weak to make even a token effort to protect their homeland.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky holding a briefing in Kyiv.

A destroyed Russian tank is seen on the roadside on the outskirts of Kharkiv following the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Picture: AFP

Neither of those things have happened. In fact, the opposite is true.

Despite being entirely outnumbered, despite Russia having complete control of the air and the sea, despite the superiority of Russian military technology and cyber capability, plucky Ukraine is clinging on. More strength to them.

Despite offers from the United States to fly the Ukrainian President and his family out of Kyiv, Zelensky did not accept them, as he said, “the war is in Ukraine”.

Zelensky, his advisers and senior ministers stayed with the people of the city to face their aggressor.

When Russia invaded Crimea in the mid twenty teens, the Ukrainian military simply left. Russian annexed Crimea without almost a shot being fired. Perhaps Putin thought the same thing would happen?

Since then, the Ukrainian government has changed. Ukraine has invested more in its military.

Russian tank runs over an elderly man’s car near the capital Kyiv. Russia have committed similar war crimes in Afghanistan, the world should see this! Utterly horrendous.#Ukraine#RussiaUkraineWar#UkraineInvasionpic.twitter.com/c9LTKletSR

— Bashir Gharwal غروال (@Bashir_Gharwal) February 25, 2022

#Ukraine
A man was taken out alive from a car that was under the tank. ❤️🇺🇦 pic.twitter.com/EYsIno0fwN

— Lilit Siminyu (@_Leilaa_23) February 25, 2022

NATO countries, the United States and other former Soviet states, such as Lithuania, Estonia and Latvia, have provided weaponry, training and advice to the Ukrainian government and Defence Force that has clearly made a difference in the first few days of the war.

Javelin antitank missiles have slowed and destroyed Russian armoured columns, and Stinger anti-aircraft missiles have taken out Russian fighter jets and bombers. While it shouldn’t be overstated, the impact of the Ukrainian resistance has slowed Russia’s quick war, while Putin is facing unprecedented protests at home in major Russian cities.

There is an inevitability that Ukraine will be defeated. But what then?

Russia will have destroyed Ukraine’s economy. The loss of infrastructure in bridges, roads, airfields, ports and energy production plants will take decades to replace – and with money that Ukraine simply doesn’t have.

Ukrainian civilian volunteers check their guns at a registration office in Kyiv. Picture: Getty Images

If Putin’s aim is to annex Ukraine, he will face a never-ending guerrilla warfare from Ukrainian patriots that will make the war in Chechnya look almost tame by comparison.

If his aim is to install a puppet pro-Russian Ukrainian regime, which seems the more likely goal, it will never be accepted by the majority of the Ukrainian people and the effects of division will be felt for years to come.

A defeated Ukrainian military will harbour hatreds against the conquering Russians and whomever Putin puts into power until that government is also toppled.

It’s a vicious cycle.

In the past two decades we have seen Putin engaged in wars in Chechnya to defeat a rebel uprising; Syria to support the Assad dictatorship; Georgia to help breakaway so-called “republics” leave their legitimately elected democratic government; Eastern Ukraine to support ethnic Russian separatists; Crimea to simply annex part of Ukraine; and now a full-scale invasion of a sovereign neighbour.

US President Joe Biden believes Putin wants to recreate the Soviet Union. Picture: AFP)

If US President Joe Biden is right that Putin wants to recreate the former Soviet Union that collapsed in 1991, the leaders of Moldova should be nervous.

Moldova was a former Soviet state from 1940 to 1991.

It is not in NATO and could not, therefore, rely on its protection. It is militarily weak and has a small economy.

NATO could do no more for Moldova than it could for Ukraine.

While most of the Western world has imposed severe sanctions on Russia, Putin and his mates, it will not send military forces to fight. Sanctions will hurt, but they won’t bring Russia to its knees militarily.

The anguish we all feel from this powerlessness is palpable.