Hansard

Today, we are witnessing the greatest crisis on our continent since the end of the second world war. If the story of the latter half of the twentieth century was the gradual progress of democracy over various stripes of authoritarianism, then sadly the story so far across the globe this century has been the opposite.

One man is responsible for the terrible crime that is being committed against the people of Ukraine today, but it is a failure of the international community and the structures that we built from the ashes of the second world war that has meant that he has been able to take that catastrophic step.

Ukraine is a sovereign, democratic nation whose people have the inalienable right to self-determination. It is a European nation, as its people have made clear by majority vote time and time again in recent years.

Putin’s claim that his invasion is intended to de-Nazify the country is not only offensive; it is plainly ridiculous when it is directed at one of the only nations on the planet to have simultaneously had a Jewish president and Prime Minister.

It was incumbent on Ukraine’s allies, such as the UK, to object after 2014, when the Azov Battalion, an explicitly neo-Nazi paramilitary, was integrated into the regular Ukrainian army. That was a propaganda coup for the Kremlin. However, that does not alter the fact that Ukraine is a liberal democracy with one of the most electorally marginalised far-rights in Europe. The real fascists here are those in the Kremlin and their puppets in the Donbas. Every democratic nation, especially those in Europe, must stand with Ukraine today.

I am proud that the most consequential economic response that has been taken so far has been the one taken by my Green colleague Robert Habeck, Germany’s Vice-Chancellor, who has finally terminated the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline. Much of the weakness in Europe’s approach to Russia over the past two decades has been driven by our dependence on Russian gas, which is a consequence of the failure to transition to clean, green domestic energy production. Transitioning from fossil fuels to renewables is not just about the climate; for our continent, energy independence is a key issue of collective and national security.

However, it is clear that far greater sanctions than that are now required. All transactions with Russian state-backed entities or those that are owned by close associates of the Kremlin must be banned. Accounts and assets that are held by Russian elites here in the UK should be audited and those that cannot be legally accounted for seized. That should have started happening years ago. Any Russian banks or companies that are connected to Russia’s arms industry should also have their assets seized and be banned from operating internationally. We should not just take those steps unilaterally. The UK, France, Germany and others must co-ordinate our diplomatic efforts to persuade other nations across the world to follow us.

The list that I have given is far from exhaustive. The UK is a tax haven and a centre of global money laundering, as other members have said. Domestic anti-corruption efforts here will hurt Putin’s associates. We must clean up Companies House, impose transparency on offshore ownership of property, resource the agencies that investigate financial crime and audit all foreign donations to political parties.

Severe economic sanctions will have consequences here, too. We should acknowledge that and plan for how we will support those who are worst affected, but the consequences of failing to act would be far worse. This will not stop in Kyiv. The UK and the US may be hypocrites when it comes to wars of aggression and respect for sovereignty, but hypocrisy is no excuse for a failure to act when innocent people are dying.

Last year’s humanitarian catastrophe in Afghanistan cannot be repeated in Ukraine. The UK must follow the lead of countries such as Ireland and Moldova and stand ready to welcome refugees who flee the conflict, especially those who would be most at risk under a Russian occupation, such as journalists and LGBT people.

I want to raise the case of a constituent who is already caught up in the crisis. I have been working with Marie McNair and Amy Callaghan MP in an effort to arrange the safe return of a mother with settled status and her baby with British citizenship from visiting family in Belarus. They have made it as far as Lithuania but are being denied travel back to the UK, their home, as a result of one of the many administrative deficiencies in the Home Office system. They cannot return to Belarus for fear of being stuck there indefinitely, given the policies of the regime in Belarus and the extensive involvement of that country’s Government in Russia’s invasion operations.

The situation has been highly distressing for my constituent. When the mother phoned my team from the airport, she was in tears, having been rejected from yet another flight, as she was unable to prove her right to be in the UK. The Home Office has given her an appointment to make their case for urgent support in two weeks. That is not to say that they will get urgent support in two weeks; they will simply have the opportunity to present documents to make the case for it.

A mother and a baby are being expected to live in an airport for two weeks until the UK Government considers whether it might help them to return home. We are talking about a legal UK resident and a British citizen. If that is how the UK Government treats a British resident and a one-year-old, it leaves me deeply concerned about how ready we are to support the many Ukrainians who, sadly, will now be forced to flee here.

Today’s show of solidarity must not be a one-off. If the conflict becomes drawn out, we cannot become numb to it, as too many did with conflicts in Syria, Iraq and elsewhere. Khay zhyve Ukrayina—long live a free and independent Ukraine.