Military History: The War in Ukraine - An Australian's Perspective

Maurice O'Connell is an Adelaide resident with a background in finance and banking and earlier in his career as a junior officer in the Irish Guards (UK).

Now retired, he was so moved by what he saw on television of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, he went to Ukraine earlier in the year as a self-funded volunteer and spent five months working with a local Ukrainian NGO in Odesa, providing welfare assistance to Internally Displaced People, remote communities, and related humanitarian projects. He is going back in March. Odesa is a city on the front line of this appalling affront to humanity driven by the twisted re-imagining of history by Putin and his cronies.. 

In this address, Maurice will relate how his military background influenced both why he went to Odesa and his role whilst there. He will describe life in a city and community on the front line, and…