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Vladimir Putin a problem for all, Australian Brigadier warns

The nation’s top military officer in London has warned Russia’s use of North Korean and Iranian forces to destroy democratic Ukraine is ‘everyone’s business’ and said Australia’s role is vital.

Brigadier Grant Mason at Australia House in London. Picture: Jacquelin Magnay
Brigadier Grant Mason at Australia House in London. Picture: Jacquelin Magnay

Australia’s top military officer in London has warned Russia’s use of North Korean and Iranian forces to destroy democratic Ukraine is “everyone’s business” and declared our nation’s role in holding back Vladimir Putin’s ambitions in Europe is “so important”.

As US President Donald Trump looks to wind back US involvement in the years-long conflict, Brigadier Grant Mason has issued a clarion call for supporting the Ukrainians and said it is a bigger and more devastating war than either the 1950s Korean War or the more-than-decade-long conflict in Vietnam.

Brigadier Mason is moving from his command of an increasingly important Australian mission in London three years after overseeing Australia’s defence in the region. As he comes home to lead a strategic review on what the Australian Defence Force can learn from Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, Brigadier Mason said in an exclusive, wide-ranging interview that Russia’s move to use its worldwide coalition in Europe makes this a fight the nation must be involved in.

“The concern now is Russia is relying on other countries like Iran, North Korea and China in a conflict that was localised initially to Western Europe,” he said. “We are engaged because there is a connectedness between those two areas: that’s ­really clear and therefore that is our fight. When Russia started leaning on other allies like it has to try and win an illegal war over the illegal invasion of Ukraine, that becomes everyone’s business.

“We are contributing to the fight that is so important … We can’t miss the fact that the scale of the conflict is so severe none of us anticipated this following WWII. Even South Korea or Vietnam just didn’t match what we are seeing in Ukraine.’’

Ukrainian soldiers on the front line using an Australian Bushmaster. Picture: Defense of Ukraine
Ukrainian soldiers on the front line using an Australian Bushmaster. Picture: Defense of Ukraine

The senior officer’s comments come as Mr Putin apologised on Saturday that a “tragic incident occurred in Russia’s airspace” when an Azerbaijan Airlines plane crashed and killed 38 people as the likely result of being hit by a missile from Russia’s missile defence system.

Mr Putin, in a call on Sunday (AEDT) with his Azerbaijani counterpart, Ilham Aliyev, claimed Russian air defences were fending off an attack from Ukrainian drones in the region at the time of the plane’s descent.

With the Azerbaijan Airlines disaster the latest by-product of Russia’s illegal invasion, Ukrainian ambassador to Australia Vasyl Myroshnychenko on Sunday said Australia’s ongoing support in the fight against Russia would be vital in 2025.

“We’re in this together, a lot will depend on the outcomes of this war,” he said “It will define the global security architecture and this region. Looking into the future we hope 2025 we can be together and strong and negotiate an end of war through strength. We rely on Australian support, we never forget it.”

Overseeing Australia’s defence in the region has been the most intense time of Brigadier Mason’s 35-year military career, except for his on-the-ground combat command in Afghanistan and Iraq.

“I don’t think anyone could have predicted such a phenomenal change in the geopolitical circumstances since 2021,’’ he said, sitting in a room at Australia House in London hours before his official handover as head of Australia’s defence staff to RAAF Air Commodore Matthew Harper.

It has been a time of great change, with the strategically crucial “supercharged” AUKUS arrangement with Britain and the US, but also the aftermath of Brexit, the death of the Queen, the celebrations of a new King and Russia’s dramatic invasion of Ukraine, which increasingly is becoming linked to the Indo-Pacific.

If that wasn’t enough for the small ADF team in London to keep busy, there was also the Australian defence strategic review, the national defence strategy, a new Labour government and upheaval in the Middle East.

Brigadier Mason’s warning about the need to stick with Ukraine will likely resonate most with Anthony Albanese and Peter Dutton heading into an election year, as they both consider how they would handle a new Trump administration in Washington for the next three years.

France's President Emmanuel Macron thumbs up flanked by US president-elect Donald Trump and Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelensky after a meeting at The Elysee Presidential Palace in Paris on December 7. Picture: Julien De Rosa/AFP
France's President Emmanuel Macron thumbs up flanked by US president-elect Donald Trump and Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelensky after a meeting at The Elysee Presidential Palace in Paris on December 7. Picture: Julien De Rosa/AFP

Mr Trump has made it clear that he intends to find a deal to end the almost three-year war once he takes office on January 20, and the president-elect’s two closest allies – vice-president-elect JD Vance and the world’s richest man Elon Musk – have been virulently sceptical of outgoing President Joe Biden’s support for the government of Ukrainian leader Volodymyr Zelensky.

While Brigadier Mason does not comment on the potential change in US strategy, he makes it clear he feels Australia’s involvement – through assisting in the training of Ukrainian army recruits to the provision of Bushmasters, Abrams tanks, a Wedgetail plane, drones and body armour – has been vital for Ukraine’s survival and strategically the right thing to do.

He believes when the conflict is over, the toll may be greater than even realised today.

“It’s very difficult to get a handle on the figures,” he said. “Potentially around 700,000 Russians killed or wounded and 200,000 Ukrainians, and even if they are inflated by 50 or 75 per cent, we are still talking about 200,000 people.”

Wing Commander Darrin Lindsay with Brigadier Grant Mason prior to returning to Australia. The visit follows its deployment with NATO in Germany, where the Wedgetail supported the flow of military and humanitarian aid into Ukraine. at RAF Lossiemouth. Picture: Euan Cherry/Parsons Media
Wing Commander Darrin Lindsay with Brigadier Grant Mason prior to returning to Australia. The visit follows its deployment with NATO in Germany, where the Wedgetail supported the flow of military and humanitarian aid into Ukraine. at RAF Lossiemouth. Picture: Euan Cherry/Parsons Media

Strategic Analysis Australia founder and director Michael Shoebridge said the comments by Brigadier Mason were “way out in front” of government policy and he hoped Labor would pay attention to his calls.

“The government … haven’t been as clear about this axis of co-operation between Russia, China, North Korea and Iran,” Mr Shoebridge said. “So he’s absolutely right, but he also seems to be out in front of government policy, which would be interesting to see if government policy will catch up with his objective analysis.”

Former Defence Department deputy secretary Peter Jennings said while co-operation between Russia and countries such as North Korea was of concern, it indicated Moscow’s weakness rather than strength.

“The longer the war goes on, the more risk Putin faces that sooner or later, that the oligarchs or the generals are just going to have enough … I think people tend to over-estimate Russia’s strength,” Mr Jennings said.

“One sign of weakness is that they’re now turning to what I ­describe as malnourished and worm-infested North Korean troops to fight their wars for them because they don’t want to recruit any more Russians to be killed. Really, that’s a sign of weakness, rather than strength. I think for us, one of the things that means is that North Korea has now found a new export product, which is people, soldiers.”

Brigadier Mason is keen to stress that Australia cannot make major decisions by looking at the current conflict. His work in his new role may be included in the next national defence strategy for Australia in 2026.

“I don’t want to get distracted by drones or the tactics of the trenches,” he said. “I am trying to elevate our thinking to look at the strategic level from an organisation department level, what is it about around innovation or supply-chain resilience or mobilisation of factory capabilities, rapid acquisition of technologies and the short learnings applied in Ukraine.

“If you want to be in a better position come the next conflict, whatever that is or wherever it is, you need to be able to do a, b or c and not just defaulting to what we often hear in military circles of preparing for the last war as opposed to preparing for the next.”

Planning has been a cornerstone of Brigadier Mason’s most recent military life, with the rapid developments in AUKUS and the policy planning for Australia to have a nuclear-powered submarine, as well as advanced capabilities under the second pillar of the tripartite agreement that has been a particular focus in the past few years.

“To say the tempo in Canberra and within the organisation has been very, very high is an understatement,’’ he said.

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Original URL: https://www.theaustralian.com.au/nation/defence/putin-a-problem-for-all-australian-brigadier-warns/news-story/021e174db7cf6ebbf38493406c6b09bb