SYDNEY, March 24 (TASS) - Australian Foreign Minister Marise Payne doesn’t exclude the possibility of expelling Russian diplomats from Canberra in response to the Russian special military operation in Ukraine, but stressed that it is important to maintain a line of communication with Moscow.

"We never stopped seeking a diplomatic resolution [to the crisis in Ukraine] and that is essential," Payne said in an interview with ABC Radio on Thursday noting that expelling the Russian ambassador "remains a live option on the table for this government".

The minister also pointed out that "it is potentially useful to have direct lines of communication with, in this case, the Russian government."

Focusing on the statement by the Australian foreign minister, the Russian Embassy in Australia stated that "this is not the first time they have heard such statements." "Canberra should finally decide whether it really needs a channel of communication with Moscow," Russia's Ambassador to Australia Alexey Pavlovsky told TASS.

Russian President Vladimir Putin on February 24 launched a special operation in Ukraine in response to a request for help from the leaders of the Donbass republics. He stressed that Moscow had no plans to occupy Ukrainian territories. Its sole aim, Putin emphasized, is to demilitarize and denazify Ukraine.