Chilling threat on Australia’s doorstep as expert reveals Putin’s scary plan for Asia-Pacific region

The Russia-Ukraine conflict is happening on the other side of the world, but there’s an awful reason why Australia “has something to worry about”.

While the unfolding crisis on the Ukrainian border feels like it’s playing out a world away, it turns out that there’s a horrifying reason why Aussies should sit up and take notice.

On Tuesday, tensions between Russia and Ukraine finally hit boiling point after Russian President Vladimir Putin made the provocative move of recognising two pro-Russian rebel Ukrainian territories as independent entities.

Almost immediately after, Mr Putin signed another decree to send Russian troops into the regions, with footage emerging of tanks and forces finally crossing the border.

The escalation was seen by experts as a clear sign that war in Europe was moving closer, with Russia watchers convinced an invasion of Ukraine could be part of a master plot to recover territory lost in the fall of the Soviet Union back in 1991.

But alarmingly, President Putin’s plan for Ukraine and other parts of eastern Europe could be just the tip of the iceberg.

Australian National University’s Russian political expert Dr Leonid Petrov told news.com.au Russia had been quietly preparing for a major conflict for years now.

Cadets of the Odessa State University of Internal Affairs, the Military Academy of Odessa and the Institute of the Naval Forces of Ukraine, form the coat of arms of Ukraine to show unity as the threat of invasion looms. Picture: Oleksandr Gimanov/AFP

“The tech and logistic preparation for the war started in the early 2000s and has now been boosted by major investment of Russia’s GDP into the military industrial complex, which will support the Kremlin’s drive westward, southward and also potentially to the Asia-Pacific region as well,” he said.

“That’s why Russia was so concerned by the AUKUS partnership, because it was clearly designed to contain the Russian expansion in the Asia-Pacific region.”

In September 2021, the controversial AUKUS partnership – a trilateral security pact between Australia, the United Kingdom and the United States – was announced.

In a nutshell, the pact means that the US and UK will help Australia acquire nuclear-powered submarines.

If that sounds familiar, it’s because it caused quite a stir at the time, after French President Emmanuel Macron accused Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison of lying as he negotiated a sub deal with Washington and London that left France out in the cold.

There are fears the Ukraine invasion is part of Russian President Vladimir Putin‘s wider expansion plot. Picture: Alexey Nikolsky/Sputnik/AFP

The spat made global headlines last year – and in the furore, the crucial purpose of the partnership was somewhat overlooked – to prevent Moscow from expanding into our own backyard.

But despite the pact, Dr Petrov believes Russian presence in the region is now likely inevitable.

“We should expect Russian naval efforts roaming the waters in the north and south Pacific,” he said.

“Australia has something to worry about.”

Putin ‘testing our resolve’

Dr Petrov’s alarming warning comes as attention turns to Russia’s alleged wider expansion plans.

Many are convinced Putin is determined to bring Russia back to the Soviet era, with former Soviet states such as Lithuania, Estonia and Latvia potentially on the leader’s hit list.

It was a theme covered during Tuesday’s emergency United Nations Security Council meeting, which was convened in the wake of the escalation in Europe.

A US representative told the meeting that Putin’s shocking act had presented the world with a choice.

This handout video grab released by the Russian Defence Ministry on February 12 shows a Moskva Russian cruiser during the Black sea naval exercises outside the Crimean port of Sevastopol. Picture: Handout/Russian Defence Ministry/AFP

“We must meet the moment and we mustn’t look the other way,” the US representative said.

“(Russia’s plan) is to create a pretext for a further invasion of Ukraine. Putin wants the world to travel back in time to a time when empires ruled the world.

“The United Nations was founded on the promise of decolonisation, not recolonisation. He is testing our resolve. We must act together in response to this crisis.”

‘We will give nothing to anyone’: Ukraine’s vow

Meanwhile, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has hit back at Russia, accusing its powerful neighbour of destroying peace talks and vowing to stand up to Moscow in a televised address to his people.

“We are committed to the peaceful and diplomatic path, we will follow it and only it,” Mr Zelensky said on camera.

“But we are on our own land. We are not afraid of anything and anybody, we owe nothing to no-one, and we will give nothing to anyone.”

Originally published as Chilling threat on Australia’s doorstep as expert reveals Putin’s scary plan for Asia-Pacific region