Anthony Albanese keen to open Kyiv embassy

Anthony Albanese has revealed Australia is considering reopening its embassy in Kyiv, as he joined world leaders in condemning Russia’s missile strike on a Ukrainian shopping centre.

Anthony Albanese at La Moncloa Palace in Madrid on Tuesday. He says the ‘strategic disaster’ of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, and the democratic world’s response to it, sent a strong signal to China. Picture: AFP

Anthony Albanese has revealed Australia is considering reopening its embassy in Kyiv, as he joined world leaders in condemning Russia’s missile strike on a Ukrainian shopping centre that killed at least 18 people.

The Prime Minister, who is in Madrid for NATO talks, said it was too soon to say whether the renewed attacks would prevent him visiting the Ukrainian capital this week at the invitation of President Volodymyr Zelensky.

Two Russian missiles slammed into a crowded shopping centre in the central Ukrainian city of Kremenchuk on Monday, when at least 1000 ­people were inside. Mr Albanese said the latest “act of aggression” by Russia would only harden the ­resolve of democratic nations to maintain the pressure on ­Vladimir Putin.

“This is a civilian target. This reinforces that atrocities are being committed in this illegal war of aggression by Russia, and why it must stop,” he said.

“It’s one of the reasons why I’m here at NATO, and (there) will be a focus on the democratic nations which make up NATO, and also the ‘Asia-Pacific Four’ who’ve been invited to this ­important forum.”

Mr Albanese said Australian officials had been weighing up in recent days whether to reopen the nation’s embassy in Kyiv, which was shut in February days before the Russian invasion.

“We would like to have a presence on the ground there to assist and to be able to provide that on-ground presence, and I’ll have more to say on that in coming days and weeks,” he said.

The EU reopened its post in Kyiv in April, and US diplomats returned the following month, but Australia’s ambassador to Ukraine, Bruce Edwards, continues to work from Poland.

The NATO meeting in Madrid is the biggest yet, bringing together the alliance’s 30 member states, and 25 partner nations, ­including the “Asia-Pacific Four” – Australia, Japan, South Korea and New Zealand.

The meeting will agree on a new “strategic concept” to outline the alliance’s priorities for the next decade. It will also, for the first time, respond to growing China assertiveness and its “no limits” partnership with Moscow, describing the rising Asian superpower as a “systemic challenge”.

Mr Albanese said the “strategic disaster” of Mr Putin’s invasion of Ukraine, and the democratic world’s response to it, sent a strong signal to China.

He said NATO members were well aware that China had been “more forward-leaning in our ­region”. “We’ve seen actions from China against Lithuania, for ­example,” he said. “China has been prepared to make sanctions not just against Australia, but to be more aggressive in its stance in the world.

“It requires the world to move towards peace and security, but to do so in a way which says that we are prepared as democratic ­nations to ensure that when something happens like the ­invasion of Ukraine, the world is prepared to stand in solidarity with the people of Ukraine and provide practical and real ­support.”

Kremenchuk, an industrial city of 217,000, lies on the Dnipro River in the region of Poltava and is the site of Ukraine’s biggest oil refinery. The region’s governor, Dmytro Lunin, said it was too soon to talk of a final death toll as rescuers continued to trawl through the rubble.

Mr Zelensky said the attack was one of the “most brazen terrorist acts in European history” and the mall had no strategic value. “Only totally insane terrorists, who should have no place on earth, can strike missiles at such an object,” he added.

The leaders of the G7 group of richest nations, who are meeting in Germany, said the ­attack was a “war crime”. At their meeting, they prepared a raft of new sanctions, ­including a price cap on oil and higher tariffs on goods.

Russia remains defiant, warning the West that any encroachment on its disputed territory in the Crimea could trigger “world war three”.