Mr ALBANESE ( Grayndler — Leader of the Opposition ) ( 14:36 ): What Russia has done in Ukraine is almost beyond description. Orchestrated by Vladimir Putin, Russia's invasion of Ukraine has trampled the fundamental principles which have made the world safer since the devastation of World War II. Russia has called sanctions an act of war. It has attacked nuclear power plants. It has inflicted terrible injury and death on innocent civilians. There is no justification for this aggressi on , which was built up over many, many months and can be traced back to the Russian aggression we saw in Crimea. They have gone as far as to issue threats of a nuclear response to international support for Ukraine. They have denied Ukraine's legitimacy to exist as a sovereign nation.

What we are witnessing is scenes of devastation in Ukraine not seen since Hitler's military invaded the Soviet Union in World War II. To see Russia now replicating that aggression in the name of a grandiose nationalistic lie is both shocking and abhorrent. Cities have been reduced to rubble. Apartment blocks, schools and hospitals have been shelled as mercilessly as military targets. Civilians have been shot as they try to escape or even as they simply try to eke out an existenc e in the ruins of their towns. Children whose lives had barely begun have been killed without mercy, families split up, families destroyed.

And, just as people's futures are smashed or stolen from them altogether, there are those who lived through one of t he hardest stretches of history only to be denied a peaceful final chapter. Think of the Ukrainians who survived the German invasion in World War II but have not survived this, Ukrainians who survived Stalin's devastating famine imposed on the people of Uk raine but have not survived this.

Vladimir Putin must pay a heavy price for what he has done. In his attempt to so violently subdue Ukraine, he is turning Russia into an international pariah and robbing his own people of their rightful future. We know Russ ia is not without friends, and one of those friends is China. China has failed in its special responsibility as a permanent member of the UN Security Council while offering Russia relief from sanctions. Just weeks before the invasion of Ukraine, China sign ed a 'no limits' friendship with Moscow.

Our quarrel is not with the Russian people. Vladimir Putin and the regime that enables him wear the responsibility for this barbarous cruelty. We commend the actions of the United States, through the Biden administr ation, as well as the European Union and NATO.

We have given and will continue to give bipartisan support to the Australian government for economic and military support for Ukraine, for sanctions against Russia and for providing a safe haven for Ukrainians fleeing the conflict, as well as for support for the Ukrainian Australian organisations that are here in this country looking after their local communities.

The truth is that Vladimir Putin's attempt to divide the West has only drawn us closer together and strengthened our commitment to our shared values. As Russia settles in a for a drawn-out campaign, it is essential that Western democracies maintain their firm stance. Putin must know he will be met with determination and escalating consequences if he continues to prosecute this illegal war. That is the very least that we owe the Ukrainian people. Their courageous resistance, as embodied by their president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, has been a beacon to the world and an inspiration for all of us who support democracy and the rights of a sovereign nation to determine their future free of military aggression and the extraordinary actions of Vladimir Putin's regime.