UKRAINE: Urgent Ceasefire then negotiations for a peaceful security solution for all parties – Media Release 5 March 2025

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IPAN Patrons: Emeritus Professor Ian Lowe AO & Kellie Tranter Lawyer & Human Rights Activist
 
MEDIA RELEASE    FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE    5 March 2025

  • ‘Coalition of the Willing’ has a disturbing historical meaning
  • No Australian military Forces should be sent to Ukraine
  • Three years of war in Ukraine and Russia must be bought to an end
  • The Government must ensure the Royal Australian Navy is not subject to Elon Musk’s whims

The Independent and Peaceful Australia network (IPAN) is alarmed by Prime Minister Anthony Albanese stating that he is open to supporting a UK led ‘Coalition of the Willing’

‘An immediate ceasefire is what is required, before any talk of ‘boots on the ground’ into Ukraine’, stated Ms Brownlie.

‘Australia must not be sucked into engaging in the European conflict by sending the ADF to participate as a result of the US’s pause in support for Ukraine,’ warned IPAN spokesperson and Chairperson, Ms Annette Brownlie.

‘If any peacekeeping force is required, it must be a UN mandated mission, in contrast to what UK Prime Minister Mr Keir Starmer is dangerously proposing’, stated Ms Brownlie.

‘UK PM Starmer’s proposition that the UK and other nations are prepared to send armed forces into Ukraine, and naming it the ‘Coalition of the Willing’ should ring alarm bells in all people across the entire globe’, said Ms Brownlie.

The US ‘Coalition of the Willing’ succeeded only in making Australian complicit in the illegal, immoral and disastrous Iraq war 22 years ago’, stated Ms Brownlie.

‘Both the Iraq and Afghanistan wars have led to 22 years of conflict, deaths and destruction across the Middle East and East Asia to this present day’, stated Ms Brownlie.

“It is imperative that we learn the lessons of our recent past and do not blindly repeat them”, stated Ms Brownlie.

‘Australia can assist the moves to peace in Europe and in the Middle east by making it clear that laying down arms followed by dialogue and negotiations is our call’, stated Ms Brownlie.

‘Arming up is just perpetuating the suffering of those Ukrainians who remain in the country and those 6 million people displaced in European countries’, concluded Ms Brownlie.

‘Australia must also reconsider the placing of the Starlink equipment being installed in 50 Australian naval vessels in our own defence systems. Starlink is owned by Elon Musk and his track record suggests there are real risks involved in being reliant upon his products and services’, stated Ms Brownlie..

‘The Royal Australian Navy should not be put in the position of being reliant on Elon Musk’s whim’, said Ms Brownlie.
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For Media Comment: Annette Brownlie, IPAN Chairperson:  0431 597 256
Media Liaison: Jonathan Pilbrow 0403 611 815

Bio: Annette Brownlie is founding member of the Brisbane based community peace organisation,
Just Peace Queensland, and the current (and inaugural) chairperson of the Independent
and Peaceful Australia Network (IPAN). She has served in this position for a decade.