Jacqui Lambie (Tasmania, Jacqui Lambie Network) | Hansard source

Last week, Ukraine fired US-made long-range missiles into Russia for the first time after President Biden lifted restrictions on their use. In response, President Putin formally lowered the threshold for Russia's use of its nuclear weapons. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov appeared to suggest today that Russia might respond with nuclear weapons to make potential enemies understand what retaliation meant on an attack of Russia or its allies. In February 2022, Russia attacked Ukraine, not because they were being threatened by Ukraine but because Ukraine said that they would like to join NATO. Why? It probably had a lot to do with the fact that Russia invaded Ukraine's territory in 2014, annexing the Crimean peninsula. At the time, the world did nothing, giving Putin the green light. Eight years later, he started amassing troops on Ukraine's border. At the time, many observers thought this was just Putin flexing his muscles, but on 24 February Putin called the world's bluff and attacked Ukraine.

Nearly three years on, Russia is getting attack drones from Iran and troops from North Korea, and they are selling their oil at a low price to China. Trump says that he can finish the war in 24 hours. Statements from Trump's team have indicated that he expects Ukraine to give up parts of the country. Let's call this out for what it is. This is appeasement. If Putin isn't stopped, he will keep going.

The US Secretary of Defense, Lloyd Austin, has said, 'Putin will not stop at Ukraine.' President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has warned that Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia, Moldova and others might be next. Poland is spending billions of dollars shoring up its defences and has taken 1.6 million Ukrainian refugees. On Tuesday, the Polish foreign minister, Radosław Sikorski, said that the biggest European Union countries are ready to assume the burden of military and financial aid to Ukraine in case the US reduces its support.

Responding to news that Biden's White House has given Ukraine the green light to use US supplied long-range missiles to strike targets inside Russia, Sikorski welcomed the move, calling it a response in 'a language that Putin understands'. He's spot on. Appeasement doesn't work with bullies. Look at what happened in the run-up to World War II. Any talk of peace that involves Ukraine giving up territory isn't peace; it's appeasement.