Defence Minister Richard Marles says it is too dangerous to return Australian diplomats to Ukraine

Defence Minister Richard Marles has refused to commit to reopening Australia’s embassy to Ukraine despite cross-party calls to strengthen ties with Kyiv as it marked the grim 1,000-day milestone since Russia’s invasion.

His comments to ABC Breakfast that the issue was still a “work-in-progress” followed a decision by Russian President Vladimir Putin to formally lower the threshold for nuclear weapons use in response to a move by the US to allow Ukraine to strike Russian targets with long-range missiles.

In Canberra, a parliamentary inquiry on Tuesday urged the government to re-establish the embassy and deploy a military attaché, as well as set-up a “one stop shop” to ensure the efficient handling of aid.

Defence subcommittee chairman Brendan O’Connor said there was a “strong case” for Australia to align itself with 70 other nations who had now reestablished their presence in the Ukrainian capital.

The Coalition has previously signalled it would reopen the embassy if elected.

But Mr Marles told ABC Breakfast the Albanese government would only send diplomats back to Ukraine when it was safe to do so. Currently the Australian ambassador is working out of the Polish capital, Warsaw.

“It’s something we want to do. We’ve been wanting to do it for some time,” Mr Marles said. “This is a matter of making sure, obviously, in the context of a warzone, that we can open this in a manner which is safe for all of those who would be in the embassy.”

Mr Marles added that bilateral ties remained strong, and Canberra was upping the tempo of military support for Kyiv.

“We are focused on the main issue here, which is providing support to Ukraine in terms of the conflict. Over the course of this year, we have been announcing more than half a billion dollars in military assistance.”

On Tuesday it was reported that Ukraine had fired US-made long-range ATACMS missiles at a military target in Russia’s Bryansk border region, just hours after Washington gave a long-awaited green light for the weapons to be used against Russian territory.

Sergey Lavrov, the Russian foreign minister, warned the Group of 20 (G20) meeting in Brazil that the strike marked a “qualitatively new phase of the Western war against Russia” and that Moscow would react “accordingly” to the escalation.

The decision by Mr Putin to formally lower the threshold for using nuclear weapons raises the threat of a nuclear response by Moscow to a conventional military attack by any nation supported by a nuclear power.

Mr Marles called Russia’s position “reprehensible” and its recent cooperation with Pyongyang to send North Korean troops to bolster Russian forces “an appalling escalation in what is already an appalling conflict.”

He said he backed the US strategy of permitting Ukraine to the Army Tactical Missile System (ATACMS) to hit Russian targets.

“This is Ukraine defending itself. Ukraine is the country that was attacked. It was Russia which crossed the border into Ukraine and began this war. And Ukraine has the right to defend itself. It’s not Ukraine who’s talking about an escalation to a nuclear level.”