This prominent Melburnian thinks Australia is failing Ukraine. He’s trying to fill the gaps
When Melbourne investor James Baillieu first heard about Russia’s invasion of Ukraine his “world ripped”, he says.
The 54-year-old member of the well-known Melbourne family the Baillieus has had a deep connection with the region since visiting Russia in a spirit of adventure in 2019.
Businessman James Baillieu will leave for Ukraine this month.
“I felt horror and decided to try and do something. I was stunned that people I had become friendly with were indirectly associated with this,” he said.
The activist investor and writer will visit Ukraine this month in a rare example of a direct intervention of an Australian into a war he says many of us have forgotten about.
“I don’t want the article to come across as a puff piece because I’m not the hero here. The real heroes are battling on the front lines day in and day out,” said Baillieu, the nephew of former Victorian premier Ted Baillieu.
This month, the businessman, who trained as a lawyer at the University of Melbourne and is lead investor and chairman of European technology firm Lithodomos, will take a train from Warsaw to Lviv, in western Ukraine, and spend about a week there.
He took his first trip to Ukraine in July 2022. “That trip was very hairy because the place had just been invaded a few months before,” he said.
“No one knew what was about to happen next; there were no air defence systems anywhere. There were missiles coming in and constant threat of them. There were bodies still under collapsed buildings in Bucha [near Kyiv] that were stinking.
“You could smell incinerated bodies in destroyed APCs [armoured personnel carriers] and piles of burnt-out cars along roadsides.”
Most of Ukraine has since returned to a more normal life and missile and drone attacks are mainly confined to the war front.
Baillieu has been fundraising for soldiers and their families. He has in the past helped by sponsoring a van that runs supplies to the front, as well as prosthetics for soldiers injured from mine blasts.
“I have a strong sense of right and wrong, and this is as offensive to right and wrong as you can get. The unprovoked invasion of a peaceful country,” he said. “Ukraine is not a perfect democracy, it’s not the perfect society. But it is trying to get better and better.
“The Russian invasion in February 2022 was an abomination against Western values and against the dignity of the human spirit.”
He understands his trip as a private citizen to a war-torn country might be criticised. The Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT) advises Australians not to travel to Ukraine because of the volatile environment and conflict.
“Everyone has a different tolerance for risk and experience in how to judge what you can and can’t do,” Baillieu said.
Defence Minister Richard Marles visited Ukraine last month, when he announced Australia’s $100 million military aid package, including funding to support drones.
Australia has provided more than $1 billion in military and humanitarian aid since the war began in February 2022, including a $50 million grant in February.
But Baillieu said the latest government aid package to Ukraine was “a trivial amount of additional aid”.
“One hundred million dollars. That’s about $3.90 for each Australian. We can and should do vastly better,” he says.
A DFAT spokeswoman said Australia remained unwavering in its support for the Ukrainian government and people.
“Since Russia’s brutal invasion, the Australian government is proud to have contributed more than $1 billion in important defence and humanitarian assistance to Ukraine,” she said.
But Australia has not reopened its embassy in Ukraine, unlike more than 60 nations, including Canada, the United States and Japan.
‘One hundred million dollars. That’s about $3.90 for each Australian. We can and should do vastly better.’
James Baillieu on Australia’s latest funding to Ukraine
Labor MPs have criticised the government for keeping Australian diplomats, including ambassador Paul Lehmann, in the Polish capital of Warsaw.
“In my view, it’s a national disgrace,” Baillieu said. “It’s a snub for the importance of Ukraine. It is not a security issue – it is a political issue.”
DFAT said the status of the embassy was under regular review. “Any decision on a permanent return of our embassy to Kyiv would be based on thorough security and work health and safety risk assessments,” the spokeswoman said.
Baillieu says the war in Gaza has wiped the war in Ukraine off the news cycle.
“I am not going to diminish the war in Gaza. The war in Ukraine is even more important geopolitically because if [Russian President Vladimir] Putin succeeds in Ukraine, it destabilises the whole of Europe,” he said.
“It’s the kind of war from the darkest chapters of 20th-century history.
“Australia should care deeply about that because we don’t have a defence force that is adequate to defend ourselves. We rely on a rules-based order.”
He urged Australians to donate to Ukraine via the Red Cross and Caritas Australia.
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