Meeting of the Parliament 23 February 2023
It is difficult to comprehend that a year has passed since Russia launched its illegal war of aggression in Ukraine. We will all remember that day and our sense of outrage and deep worry for the people of Ukraine, but also the unity of purpose as we gathered in the chamber to offer them our solidarity. I join colleagues in paying tribute to that sense of unity across the Parliament and to the work of the minister and the cabinet secretary, which has helped to foster it.
We mourn those who have lost their lives, and we pray for all those who have been victims in Russia’s campaign of brutal and indiscriminate attacks. We have all seen evidence of the atrocities that have been committed by the barbaric Russian regime in towns and cities across Ukraine as it has indiscriminately bombed civilians and attacked Ukraine’s critical infrastructure. There is a clear sense of anger and injustice about what has been happening to Ukraine and its people, alongside a sense of outrage at Russia’s decision to provoke a war that is an unjustifiable act of aggression.
In Scotland, we have all witnessed generous acts of solidarity as our villages and towns have rallied to support Ukraine. In March 2022, in the early days of the war, the Deanston bakery on the south side of Glasgow, which is owned by Ukrainian baker Yuriy Kachak, organised a bake sale to raise funds to support people in his homeland. The response was overwhelming. People travelled from across the west of Scotland and formed a queue that snaked around the blocks of tenement flats as they willingly waited for more than an hour to donate and show their support for Ukraine. Yuriy raised a staggering total of £25,000 from that bake sale, and funds raised from a JustGiving page started by the bakery increased it to more than £36,000. That amount was more than doubled by an incredibly generous anonymous donation that brought the total amount raised to £72,451, all of which was donated to the Disasters Emergency Committee’s Ukraine humanitarian appeal.
That example is reflective of the people of Scotland’s response to the early days of the war. They felt powerless to stop the atrocities that were being committed by Russia, but they wanted to do something—anything—to express their solidarity and provide meaningful support to the people of Ukraine.
Since the onset of Russia’s war of aggression, Scotland has welcomed more than 20,000 Ukrainian people through the supersponsor and homes for Ukraine schemes. It is right that Scotland should remain their home for as long as they need or wish to live here, because the war has altered their lives irreversibly.
That is why we must help to provide displaced Ukrainians with stability and security and allow them to make Scotland a safe haven and a place that they can truly call home. In my region, in the west of Scotland, we have been pleased to welcome Ukrainian people to our communities. Indeed, hundreds of people are living on the cruise ship MS Ambition, which is berthed at King George V dock, in Renfrew. That has provided much needed safety but, ultimately, a cruise ship must be only a temporary solution; it does not provide the security of tenure that people require.
As we have heard, it is imperative that the Government devises a longer-term strategy for housing displaced people from Ukraine, because it will give them certainty about their future and the opportunity to truly root their lives here, in Scotland, if they wish to do so. That means the Scottish Government providing necessary funding to local government to allow it to meet the needs of the Ukrainian diaspora population.
Ukrainians have become integral members of our communities, and they are now our neighbours and friends. I want to share a few examples of how they have been welcomed in the communities that I represent. In East Renfrewshire, the Park parish church in Giffnock opened its doors as a hub for newly settled Ukrainian families, providing free face-to-face English lessons and access to support services that have allowed families to integrate more easily into the local community. In Inverclyde, pupils at Clydeview academy, in Gourock, organised a variety of fundraising activities as they aimed to provide Ukrainian refugees who had newly arrived in Inverclyde with bespoke welcome packs to make them feel at home in the area and telling them something about the community and Inverclyde’s rich history of welcoming people fleeing war and persecution.
As the war in Ukraine enters its second year, it is important to state that the issue is so much bigger and more important than party politics, as we have seen across the chamber today. That is why Labour has supported the UK Government’s approach every step of the way and will continue to work constructively with both of our Governments at the UK level and here, in Scotland, to maximise the resources and support that we provide to Ukraine. Like my colleagues, I was proud to see Keir Starmer visit Kyiv last week to express that solidarity and show our willingness to continue to support the people of Ukraine and defend their sovereignty and territorial integrity.
I was heartened to hear Donald Cameron quote the great Seamus Heaney in his contribution. I offer members two further quotations today. Seamus Heaney wrote:
“If you have the words, there’s always a chance that you’ll find the way.”
I hope that our words today in the Scottish Parliament have been helpful to the people of Ukraine and have shown that, together, we will work to find a way through this. Heaney also wrote, in “Beowulf”:
“Anyone with gumption and a sharp mind will take the measure of two things: what’s said and what’s done.”
That could apply perfectly to President Zelenskyy and the people of Ukraine. We are in awe of their words and their actions. Now, may our actions match our words. Victory to Ukraine!
16:28