Australia’s Prime Minister has described Russia and China’s closer relationship as opportunistic rather than strategic. Scott Morrison on Monday labelled the alliance an Arc of Autocracy and said Russia and China would prefer a new world order to the one that has been in place since World War II. Morrison has criticised Beijing’s failure to condemn Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and China’s expansion of trade in Russian wheat while other countries are imposing sanctions. Australia last week promised Ukraine 50 million in missiles, ammunition and other military hardware to fight Russian invaders. Morrison said on Monday: Our missiles are on the ground now.
Meanwhile in Washington, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said the House is exploring legislation to further isolate Russia from the global economy, including banning the import of its oil and energy products into the US. Amid rising gasoline prices in the US, the Biden administration has yet to call for an oil import ban on Russia. In a letter to Democrats released Sunday night, Pelosi says the legislation under consideration would also repeal normal trade relations with Russia and Belarus and begin the process of denying Russia access to the World Trade Organisation. Pelosi says the House would also empower the Biden administration to raise tariffs on Russian imports. Congress intends to approve the Biden administration’s request for 10 billion in humanitarian, military and economic support for Ukraine, Pelosi said, as part of omnibus government funding legislation this week.
Elsewhere in Lviv, Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba said more than 20,000 people from 52 countries have already volunteered to fight in Ukraine, where they will serve in a newly created international legion. He did not say how many of the foreign volunteers have arrived in Ukraine. The whole world today is on Ukraine’s side not only in words but in deeds, Kuleba said on Ukrainian television Sunday night. He did not name the home countries of the volunteers, saying that some of them forbid their citizens from fighting for other countries. Kuleba also urged Ukrainians living in other countries to begin a campaign to push for Ukraine’s membership in the European Union. The whole world is watching with fingers crossed.