Caught on tape: Aussie Red Cross probes donations to Russia’s military

Ukrainian community activists are outraged after the Russian Red Cross was caught welcoming donations of cash, uniforms and drones towards Putin’s military machine.

Exclusive: The Australian Red Cross is investigating after its Russian counterpart was caught on tape welcoming donations of balaclavas, uniforms and drones for the country’s army.

It comes as Ukrainian community activists call on the Australian body and other international Red Cross offices to publicly denounce the Russian arm over its role supporting Putin’s bloody invasion of Ukraine and take steps to kick it out of international Red Cross groups.

Activists say the Russian office’s actions, which also include accepting cash for the military, violate one of the Red Cross movement’s key principles — neutrality in armed conflicts.

In a phone call recorded by activists on Friday, a representative of the Kamchatka branch of the Russian Red Cross said people can support the military by dropping off supplies at the organisation’s office in Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky.

Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky is the main city in Kamchatka, a peninsular in Russia’s far east where the time is currently just an hour ahead of Australian daylight saving time.

In the call, which News Corp has had independently translated, a Russian Red Cross official tells Sydney-based Ukrainian community protest organiser Anton Bogdanovych that supplies for the military including “thermal underwear, socks, sleeping bags, individual medical sets, and other outfit and equipment items” are welcome at the Kamchatka office.

Pressed on what he means by “other outfit and equipment items”, he responds: “balaclavas, for example”.

Asked if people can also donate drones and military uniforms, he says: “Yes, you can.”

Vladimir Putin meeting with military officers involved in Russia's invasion of Ukraine. Picture: Gavriil Grigorov/Sputnik/AFP

The Kamchatka Red Cross website shows it accepts donations for military personnel and their families on behalf of the Russian #WeTogether campaign, which includes as its aim supporting the country’s armed forces, and is working with the United Russia party headed by key Putin ally Dmitry Medvedev.

Mr Bogdanovych made the call to establish the willingness of the Russian Red Cross to accept donations to the military, rather than to actually make one.

The Red Cross office is a “joint centre where donations are accepted, collected and gathered together”, the Russian official said during the call.

An Australian Red Cross spokesman said the organisation was aware of the phone call and was “establishing the facts”.

The international Red Cross movement’s two peak bodies, the International Committee of the Red Cross and the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies, “are in dialogue with the Russian Red Cross on this matter,” he said.

“Neutrality sometimes means taking action but doing so in ways that are not public. This can include engaging in robust but confidential discussion with stakeholders on issues of humanitarian need.”

Fighting continues in Ukraine. Picture: Getty Images

Mr Bogdanovych said Ukrainian community activists did not want to hurt the Red Cross because of its good work, including collecting blood and helping victims of Australia’s recent floods but were frustrated because they raised their separate concerns with the body more than two months ago and it had not taken any action.

He said that the Australian organisation and other national Red Cross bodies should throw the Russian Red Cross out of the ICRC and IFRC.

He rejected arguments that the Red Cross movement’s complicated international structure and made it too difficult to take action against the organisation.

“How ridiculous is this argument that one of our members is a thug (the Russian Red Cross) and just because we have a complex structure we can’t do anything?” he said.

“You can vote to expel them and they can come up with their own thing, like they did with McDonalds.”

McDonalds outlets in Russia were rebranded as Vkusno i tochka (“Delicious, full stop”) in June after the burger giant sold up and quit the country.