Australia is a step closer to reopening its embassy in Ukraine's war-torn capital Kyiv, after completing further planning for security and IT arrangements to allow Australia-based staff to return.
However, the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT) has not detailed a timeline for the embassy's reopening, nor said what other steps it still needs to take.
"We have always said we would reopen Australia's embassy in Kyiv when it's safe to do so," a spokesperson for Foreign Minister Penny Wong told the ABC.
"The Albanese government and the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade have been working toward this by developing safety measures and mitigation strategies to ensure this can happen."
Shortly after Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine began in February 2022, the previous government, led by Scott Morrison, ordered Australian embassy staff to evacuate Kyiv and relocate to "temporary" offices in neighbouring Poland because of the "increased risk".
That arrangement has continued under the Albanese government.
Mick Ryan, a retired Australian Army major general and senior fellow at the Lowy Institute, told the ABC that almost three years after the start of the war, the return of Australian diplomats to Kyiv was well overdue.
"Nearly 70 countries have returned their embassies to Kyiv, including our closest neighbour, Indonesia, and all our allies — the British, the Canadians and the Americans are already there, and have been for some time," Mr Ryan said.
"There is absolutely no reason and no justification for the continuous dithering of the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade and the government on this issue."
Canada reopened its embassy, which is in the same building as the empty Australian embassy, in May 2022, less than three months after Russia's invasion.
Senator Wong's spokesperson said Australia's ambassador to Ukraine, Paul Lehmann, "continues to prosecute Australia's interests from Warsaw".
The ambassador has travelled to Ukraine four times since he took over the posting a year ago, with the most recent visit to the city of Bucha, north-west of Kyiv, coinciding with 1,000 days since the Russian invasion last month.
"Ambassadors are not supposed to be fly in, fly out — or train in, train out, as the case may be," Mr Ryan said.
"Ambassadors are there to establish a relationship and to represent our country.
"There are a lot of conversations with Ukrainian politicians that can be had about assistance and future aid to the country which should be done by people based there, and there's a lot we can learn from what's going on — whether it's civil defence, cyber defence, or military affairs — that only people based in Ukraine would have access to."
Senator Wong's spokesperson said Australia had provided "more than $1.5 billion in important defence, economic, energy and humanitarian assistance to Ukraine".
Australia recently donated 49 aging M1A1 Abrams tanks to Ukraine that were due to be replaced by a newer model.
During a visit to Ukraine in August, the opposition's foreign affairs spokesperson, Senator Simon Birmingham, announced the Coalition would commit to safely reopening Australia's embassy if it was returned to government at the next election.
"The Albanese government's stubborn refusal to reopen Australia's embassy has left us an international outlier and contributed to questions about Australia's reliability as a totally dependable partner," Senator Birmingham said at the time.
He added that Australian governments had previously kept embassy staff safe in dangerous posts, including Kabul and Baghdad.
DFAT has previously argued that threat levels in different countries are difficult to compare because the risk-mitigation measures are not the same.
A parliamentary inquiry this year recommended that the federal government reopen Australia's embassy in Ukraine, deploy an Australia military attaché, continue providing military assistance to Kyiv, and set up a "one-stop shop" to ensure aid is managed efficiently.
In its submission to the inquiry, DFAT said it was keeping the security situation in Kyiv "under review", and would consider a return of Australia's diplomatic staff "when circumstances permit".
