'Begging for support': Ukraine ambassador's desperate plea to Australia
Ukraine's ambassador to Australia reveals he lives in daily terror that Russian missiles have killed his family back home while he fights for his country's survival.
Vasyl Myroshnychenko lives each day wondering if a ruthless Russian cruise missile or stealth drone have killed his family still living through war in Europe.
It’s a candid insight into Ukraine’s tireless ambassador to Australia, who sits at a South Brisbane cafe on a muggy Friday morning, opens his hands and insists “ask me anything”.
His country is approaching the four-year anniversary of Russia’s full-scale invasion that killed some 400,000 Ukrainians and one million Russians.
Usually Mr Myroshnychenko would be peppered with questions about Australia’s effort to strangle Russia’s economy or new demands for more cash and equipment to support his army.
We get to that, but Mr Myroshnychenko first rewinds to before dawn on February 22, 2022.
“I was still in Kyiv when the Russians attacked Ukraine,” he said.
It’s tough to comprehend the fear and uncertainty facing millions of people that Thursday morning when the unimaginable happened.
“Imagine any place 20 minute drive from your house and you wake up five o’clock in the morning,” Mr Myroshnychenko says.
“Your enemy is landing, very close … on the outskirts of Brisbane.
“They are here to invade and kill you and capture your President, kill him and depose the government.”
His daughter was 18 and son, only five years old.
The eyes of this straight-talking hardman ambassador go red and glassy as he recalls the helplessness.
“That’s a petrifying feeling and the fear you experience for your kids is unimaginable because … I can die, when you think about your kids it’s different,” he said.
“We never thought it could happen, I was in Kyiv.
“I never thought Russians would actually land in Kyiv and they did.”
The heroics of Ukraine forces pushed the Russians out of the capital within days.
President Volodymyr Zelensky walked the streets filming a video to tell his people, I’m still here.
Mr Myroshnychenko was appointed an adviser to Ukraine’s minister of defence two weeks later.
A month after the invasion Mr Myroshnychenko was appointed Ukraine’s ambassador to Australia.
“I was a refugee,” he said.
“I took my family to Romania and we came here on the end of March 2022.”
Mr Myroshnychenko’s ability to communicate to Australians about the plight of his people – far from where the shells are falling – comes from a 16-year career running a crisis communications agency in Kyiv.
He is a co-founder of Ukraine Crisis Media Center, a media non-government organisation established in March 2014 after Russia invaded the Crimean Peninsula.
Mr Myroshnychenko has been back to Ukraine 10 times since the 2022 invasion and, in July, came under major attack.
“Attacks at Kyiv now are more scary than they used to be three years ago,” he said.
“The problem is now with missiles and drones.
“You hear those explosions and it’s loud and it’s like you feel like it’s going to hit your house anytime.”
He’s traumatised worrying about his mother, family and friends in Ukraine but feels a sense of duty working in Australia.
“Every morning I wake up and think how can I help,” he said.
Australia still stands with Ukraine and that support is not wavering, Mr Myroshnychenko says.
But media reporting has exposed the unintended economic lifeline Australia’s superannuation and major petrol companies are offering Russia.
“The way the sanctions policy is listed it doesn’t apply to products which derive from Russian oil … so it’s a moral choice for BP and Viva and Ampol or whoever is importing that,” he said.
He is desperate for Australia to tighten the screws to stop billions of dollars flowing into Putin’s coffers.
For each billion dollars Russians can produce 700 cruise missiles.
One of those missiles was used on Mr Myroshnychenko’s home town of Ternopil, near where his mother, brother, aunty and cousin still live.
It’s a rural town 700km from the front line. Ten people died.
“This is just horrible and it was in the middle of the night,” he said.
“Imagine you sleep in your bed and you never wake up. You’re blown up and in a place where you never thought it would come, but it did.
“There is not a single city in Ukraine which is protected.”
It’s this daily nightmare he unashamedly uses to demand more support from Australia.
We’ve offered Ukraine some $1.6bn in support but a major donation hasn’t been made in more than a year.
“We’re not being whimsical … it’s our survival,” he said.
“I am begging for support because shit, we get so many people killed every day. You know, both military and civilians, and this is just the war it’s just reached a new intensity, which may be not that widely reported, but it’s just insane.”
He appreciates Australia’s support but compares it to the $20bn provided by Canada.
“There is room for improvement,” he said.
“You are still the largest non-NATO military donor but you are definitely closer to the bottom in terms of material support.”
Queensland-manufactured equipment is keeping Ukrainian troops protected on the frontline, and Mr Myroshnychenko argues there are now defence and economic opportunities.
“You were just supporting Ukraine, but now, we’re an asset for you,” he said.
“Your defence forces can learn so much from our war on a technical, operational level and most importantly your defence industry – a lot of them are working in Ukraine or supplying to Ukraine.”
Almost four years into a war that seems without end, Mr Myroshnychenko is still desperately spreading the word.
He says Queenslanders wanting to support Ukraine can donate to humanitarian causes, such as Future Ukraine.
They can write to their federal Member of Parliament or senator and demand more support for Ukraine, and write or share stories about Ukraine to social media.
“I don’t want you to turn off because it’s so connected, we are in this fight together,” he said.
“We’re fighting for democracy.
“The only reason Russia invaded us was because it was an existential threat for Putin to have a democratically elected government next door, a country which wants to uphold human rights, country which has democracy, which has elections.”
He’s a wartime ambassador fighting for his country’s survival and is desperate to ensure “Australia stays with us”.
