Carrying branches of Ukrainian kalina (viburnum), blue and yellow flags and graphic photographs of the corpses of Bucha, around 1500 Ukrainian-Australians and their supporters marched through Melbourne’s CBD on Sunday.

Arriving at the steps of State Parliament, organisers demanded greater, more urgent action by all governments around the world “to condemn and end Putin’s genocide”.

They called on the Federal Government to further cut diplomatic ties with Russia, specifically by expelling Russian Ambassador Dr Alexey Pavlosky.

“We are here because we are human,” chair of the Australian Federation of Ukrainian Organisations, Mr Stefan Romaniw, told the crowd. “What you see there is inhumane,” he said, pointing to the photographs of dead civilians in the streets of Bucha.

“What you see there is no respect for human life.”

Behind him, community members laid on the steps of Parliament and reenacted images of the Ukrainian corpses, their hands tied behind their backs with rope.

Mr Romaniw had a message for the ambassador, who resides in Canberra: “We’re on a rage, we’re not finished, and we’ll do everything to make sure you and your counterparts get on a plane and get out of Australia.”

Last week, Labor leader Anthony Albanese called on the government to expel Russian diplomats, an action many European countries — including Germany, France and Italy — had already taken. Under the model suggested by Mr Albanese, Dr Pavlovsky would probably be able to remain in place.

The following day Foreign Minister Marise Payne announced fresh sanctions on 67 Russian leaders in response to the Bucha attack. Questioned by Labor’s Senator Penny Wong at a hearing in Canberra on why Australia had not ordered the expulsion of diplomats, a senior DFAT official said the matter was under continual review.

President of the Association of Ukrainians in Victoria, Mr Slawko Kohut, said Canberra’s rollout of sanctions was ineffective: “It’s just not working. We have to take stronger action now.”

Addressing the rally, Victorian Liberal Leader Matthew Guy, who is of Ukrainian descent, agreed with Kohut. “[The war] won’t end with sanctions,” he said. “It will only end when Putin is gone because Putin is a war criminal. He should be tried as such.”

Mr Guy added his support of the expulsion of Pavlovsky, describing it as a symbolic gesture indicating Australia’s condemnation of facist regimes.

“Do svidaniya, Pavlosky – goodbye. Go back to Moscow,” Mr Guy said. “We’ll make a special exception for Aeroflot [the Russian airline] to come to Canberra to get you.”

In an interview with The Citizen, Victorian Liberal Senator David Van said deciding to expel Russian diplomats was a complex matter. “There are Australian citizens still in Russia, and if we expel their diplomatic staff, they will expel ours.”

“Also, the ability to have some channel of communication may — though I’m not full of hope — have some impact on the Russian Government.”

Mr Kohut disagreed with this rationale. “I’m told that the embassies here are important because they’re a line of communication,” he told the rally. “Communicating with what? You talk with them and they tell lies.”

In a media release last Friday, Mr Kohut noted a 4 April post on the ‘Embassy of Russia in Australia’ Facebook page which reads: “the photos and video footage from Bucha are another hoax, a staged production by the [Kiev] regime for the Western media.”

A director of the Association of Ukrainians in Victoria, Mr Daniel Stefyn, said that media published by the offices of Russian diplomats has resulted in an unbalanced narrative and misunderstanding about Ukraine’s situation.

He told The Citizen he has met Ukrainians who have experienced racism since the war began, including being called a ‘nazi’, which he attributes to the media circulation he claims to be Kremlin propaganda.

Mr Stefyn said that the government needs to consider that keeping Russian diplomats within Australia has a traumatic impact on the Ukrainian community.

Victoria has more than 15,000 residents with Ukrainian heritage, according to ABS census data. Over 5000 are Ukraine-born, with most arriving as economic migrants in the ‘90s after the fall of the Soviet Union.

“It’s been so painful for Ukrainians to be continually exposed to Russian media which pretends that there’s basically no problem,” Mr Stefyn said. “Australia should move against that kind of behaviour from the official Russian representatives.”

Senator Van said the government has been clear that expelling Russian diplomats will remain under consideration. “It’s not off the table,” he said.

“It’s something that we have to work through and assess what is the right way forward.”