Australia’s diplomats have been evacuated from Ukraine due to increased safety risks amid escalating concerns over the threat of invasion from Russian troops.
The decision means three staff will depart a makeshift embassy in Lviv as officials are deployed to neighbouring Poland and Romania to assist Australians seeking evacuations.
It follows Russian President Vladimir Putin's move to recognise two breakaway Ukrainian regions as independent, and order troops into these areas.
Prime Minister Scott Morrison earlier condemned the troop deployment into eastern Ukraine, dismissing claims from Moscow the military incursion was a peacekeeping operation as “nonsense”.
Mr Morrison urged Russia on Tuesday to “step back” from aggression against Ukraine as he declared Russia's troops had moved into its "sovereign territory".
“It should unconditionally withdraw, back behind its own borders and stop threatening its neighbours,” he told reporters in Tasmania.
“It’s unacceptable, it's unprovoked, it's unwarranted.”
Mr Morrison said that this risked resulting in an “absolutely violent confrontation with terrible human consequences”.
The deployment marks another escalation in the accelerating crisis the West fears could unleash major conflict if Moscow mounts a further invasion.
The Russian decree to send in troops to "keep the peace" has also drawn condemnation from the United States and Europe, as well as
Mr Morrison said Australia intended to move in “lock step” to impose “strong and severe sanctions” alongside international partners to make their condemnation clear.
“We've seen this behaviour before and seeking to take opportunity to threaten a neighbour for their own advantage is just simply not on,” he said.
Washington has said Russia has massed a force numbering 169,000-190,000 troops in the region, including the separatists in the breakaway regions, and could invade within days.
Ukrainian troops patrol in the town of Novoluhanske, eastern Ukraine, on February 19, 2022. Source: AFP
But Moscow has said repeatedly it has no such intention.
The Australian government had already evacuated staff from its embassy in Ukraine's capital Kyiv on 13 February
Foreign Minister Marise Payne has said there was still time for Russia to back away from a potential war, despite Moscow’s provocative actions.
“This is not inevitable. This does not have to happen,” she told 2GB radio on Tuesday.
“There are still choices to be made by Russia here and we hope we can see productive discussions continue and this be avoided.”
Mr Putin's move also marks an explicit rejection of a seven-year-old ceasefire mediated by France and Germany, touted as the framework for future negotiations on the wider crisis.
Moscow has claimed Ukrainian military saboteurs have tried to enter Russian territory in armed vehicles leading to five deaths, an accusation dismissed as "fake news" by Kyiv.
Both developments fit a pattern repeatedly predicted by Western governments, who accuse Russia of preparing to fabricate a pretext to invade by blaming Kyiv for attacks and relying on pleas for help from separatist proxies.
On Monday night in a speech to conservative think tank the Danube Institute in Hungary, former prime minister Tony Abbott said if Russia was successful, it could create a "new Iron Curtain" across Europe, particularly if Mr Putin went on to target Poland and the Baltic states.
Senator Payne has met with the Polish foreign minister and secretary of state at the Presidential Palace during a stop in Warsaw, as part of a round of security talks in Europe.
She said "countries in the region" were "very, very concerned" about Russia's provocative actions.
Labor foreign affairs spokeswoman Penny Wong has also condemned Russia's latest moves as a "blatant violation of international law".
"There is no justification, no matter what Mr Putin says, for a decision to engage in conflict," she told ABC radio.
"It does have implications for the world if a member of the international community simply violates international law and engages in unilateral changes to borders."
Opposition Leader Anthony Albanese also said Russia should "back off" from "threats and intimidation" against Ukraine.
"We stand with all democratic nations in opposing this action," he told reporters.
