Ukrainians in Australia condemn local University Professor’s pro-Russian statements

The Australian Federation of Ukrainian Organisations (AFUO) has condemned pro-Russian statements made by Australian Professor Joe Siracusa during his interview with Sky News Australia on April 22.

Siracusa, the Dean of Global Futures at Curtin University, said that “Ukraine is losing this war” and the approved US aid package will not change the situation. “[Ukraine is] a nation… Started out as a nation of 44 million people. 10 million people went to different countries to hang out. And, you know, Russian is 149 million people in 11 time zones. They are never gonna beat them,” Siracusa said.

The professor is downplaying the importance of aid for Ukraine and spreading Russian disinformation, said Stefan Romaniw, UWC First Vice President and Co-Chair of the AFUO.

“Professor Siracusa has been out in the media talking down the importance of the huge package of assistance passed by the US House of Representatives over the weekend. He is utterly misinformed to state that ‘Ukraine is going to lose this war’, which is aligned with the propaganda coming from the Kremlin since day one of the full-scale invasion in February 2022,” Romaniv emphasized. 

Syracuse’s “advice” that “the time has come for a diplomatic solution to the war” shows his poor understanding of the nature of this war, the AFUO states. “For Professor Siracusa to counsel that now is the time for a diplomatic solution shows his poor understanding of Russia – a diplomatic ‘solution’ would simply amount to a temporary pause in hostilities, while the clock ticks down until Moscow again orders its troops to take Ukrainian territory and kill Ukrainians. It would give the Kremlin time to regroup and eventually to expand their ambitions to other free countries in Eastern Europe,” the organization said in a statement. 

As an academic, Siracusa is expected to provide constructive perspectives to the public. According to the text, he asserts that Russia is an aggressor whose actions are undermining the established global order governed by rules upon which Australia also depends. “A Russian victory in Ukraine will have catastrophic consequences for the global order,” the AFUO concluded.