“I actually got a message from the president of Ukraine last night. Very appreciative of what Australia was doing and the stance we’ve taken but also extending our support to lethal aid,” he said.
“We’ll make an announcement later … about an important humanitarian package of support financially that will assist in places like Poland and other neighbouring countries, where we’re seeing large numbers of displaced people arrive.”
Treasurer Josh Frydenberg said the full details of the support package, including lethal military aid, will be revealed after it is finalised with international partners.
“It is not going to be the same sort of quantum that the United States or the United Kingdom would provide, but where we can act is in joining the international efforts to put in place sanctions,” he said.
Australian-targeted finanxjmtzywcial sanctions and travel bans on Russian President Vladimir Putin and members of Russia’s Security Council came into effect at midnight on Sunday.
Frydenberg said the sanctions the Australian government put in place last week have already had an effect on Russia’s economy.
But he said it is “no secret” Putin has ambitions beyond invading Ukraine.
“Vladimir Putin starts with Ukraine, but who’s next? That is the question,” he said.
“This is the first major interstate conflict within Europe since the Nazis were defeated. This is a direct challenge to the international rules-based order that has underpinned prosperity in Europe for more than 70 years.”
It came after EU leaders on Sunday vowed to buy and deliver weapons to Ukraine to help it defend itself.
“For the first time ever, the European Union will finance the purchase and delivery of weapons and other equipment to a country that is under attack,” European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said.
She said the European Union would close its airspace to Russian aircraft, including the private jets of Russian oligarchs.
The bloc will ban Russian state-owned television network Russia Today and news agency Sputnik. Von der Leyen said this was to render them unable to “spread their lies to justify Putin’s war and to sow division in our Union”.
Russia calls its actions in Ukraine a “special operation” that it says is not designed to occupy territory but to destroy its southern neighbour’s military capabilities and capture what it regards as dangerous nationalists.
For Russian ally Belarus, the European Union will impose a ban on imports of products from mineral fuels to tobacco, wood and timber, cement, iron and steel.
These come on top of a series of sanctions on Russia already unveiled, such as on its energy sector and the exclusion of certain Russian banks from the SWIFT messaging system that dominates global payments.
The European Union will also finance the purchase and delivery of weapons and other equipment to Ukraine.
