This April marked the fourth year of the ongoing war in Ukraine between the Ukrainian military and Russian backed separatists in the self-proclaimed Donetsk and Lugansk People’s Republics in eastern Ukraine, also known as the Donbas region. Prior to the beginning of the war in eastern Ukraine in April 2014, Russia annexed Crimea.

Russia’s aggression into Ukraine came in direct violation of its obligations under the 1994 Budapest Memorandum. Under the memorandum, in exchange for Ukraine giving up its nuclear weapons, Russia reaffirmed its “obligation to refrain from the threat or use of force against the territorial integrity or political independence of Ukraine” and promised that none of its weapons would ever be used against Ukraine except in self-defence or otherwise in accordance with the Charter of the United Nations.

To learn more, please join me at the Western Open Forum with Special Guest Speaker His Excellency Dr Mykola Kulinich, Ambassador of Ukraine to Australia. The Forum will be held on 16 May 2018 5:30pm for 6pm start at Female Orphan School (Building EZ, West Wing), Western Sydney University, Parramatta South Campus