“It’s unbelievable that the prime minister’s talking about moving troops from Australia to station them, or to base them in Ukraine, when Italy, Germany, France has made no decision yet to base troops there. There’s no peace yet, there’s no peace to keep,” he said at a press conference in Brisbane.
Arguing the prime minister should not make impulsive commitments, he added that “we should be doing everything we can to bolster our security and our defences, and to make sure that we’re investing in, and not taking away from, the capacity of the Australian Defence Force.”
Grod urged Australia to help Ukraine by providing more military equipment, funding the nation’s sovereign defence industry and agreeing to send “boots on the ground” as part of a European-led coalition.
“We’re seeing that we have a disruptive US policy right now, and that’s why the rest of the world needs to be more aligned and unified than ever before,” he said.
“Whether Australia sends 100, 1000 or 10,000 people, it’s symbolic that Australia is there as part of the coalition of the willing.”
He added: “It’s also a great opportunity for Australia to get direct combat level experience … You have a very difficult situation in your region as well, and you certainly want your troops to be battle trained.”
Arguing that Trump has little interest in the security of allies such as Australia, Grod said: “If China is emboldened then how far are they going to go? And is Trump going to stand up for Australia? I don’t think so.”
As US and Ukrainian officials prepare to meet for negotiations in Saudi Arabia this week, Grod said there were alarming signs that the Trump administration was trying to force Ukraine into a “full-on capitulation” by halting military aid and intelligence sharing.
Rather than pressuring Ukraine into agreeing to a truce on Russia’s terms, he said the more likely outcome is that Ukraine continues to defend itself with the help of Europe and other supporters.
“The Ukrainians will not surrender, they will not capitulate, they will continue to fight,” he said. “The question is: are we going to give them the means to do so? I think that Europe is certainly of the opinion that we have to be ready to go this alone.”
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Grod has led the Ukrainian World Congress, which represents 25 million Ukrainian expatriates, since 2018 and is banned from entering Russia because of his opposition to the Putin regime.
He said that while Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky “let his emotions get the better of him” in his combative Oval Office meeting with Trump last month, he believed there was little he could have done to win the US president over.
Grod said Trump is prepared to sacrifice Ukraine in a quixotic bid to establish a US-Russia alliance that can compete against China.
“I think he has no interest in Ukraine’s security and future, couldn’t care less about it,” he said. “I think he will go down as the Neville Chamberlain of this century and history will not treat him kindly.”
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