Hansard

The Czech writer Milan Kundera, in “The Book of Laughter and Forgetting”, wrote:

“The first step in liquidating a people is to erase its memory. Destroy its books, its culture, its history. Then have someone write new books, manufacture a new culture, invent a new history. Before long the nation will begin to forget what it is and what it was. The world around it will forget even faster”.

The international community must not allow that to happen to Ukraine.

I thank every member who has supported my motion and those who will speak in the debate. I highlight the work that my colleague Stewart McDonald MP has done, and continues to do, for Ukraine.

The motion supports

“the calls for the establishment of an ad hoc special tribunal with a mandate to investigate and prosecute the crime of aggression allegedly committed by the political and military leadership of the Russian Federation”

in their illegal and despicable invasion of Ukraine.

I am proud to note that Scotland and its Government and Parliament have already sought to step up to the mark in this Europe-wide crisis, with the limited powers at their disposal, by welcoming more than 23,000 displaced Ukrainians, largely through the supersponsor scheme; supplying millions in humanitarian, medical and military aid; and providing a platform for Ukrainian culture.

One year on from the time when Russian planes were in the air over Kyiv and Russian tanks invaded a sovereign state in an act of aggression, I hope that the Scottish Parliament will add Scotland’s voice to those of the European Parliament and others by supporting the motion.

Watching the news on Monday evening and seeing President Biden walking in step with President Zelenskyy across the cobbles in Kyiv was something to behold. It has been compared with the speeches from both Kennedy and Reagan at the Berlin wall. Biden said:

“one year later, Kyiv stands and Ukraine stands. Democracy stands”.

Like several MSPs, I visited the MS Victoria in Leith, and one memory stands out to me. On my phone, I have a photo of a picture that was drawn by one of the young people on the ship. It depicts a beautiful young woman in a pink gown and high heels, dressed as though she is ready to go to a party, but instead of a handbag she is carrying an assault rifle, which is firing at a Russian tank emblazoned with a “Z”.

In Crimea, hundreds of Ukrainian children aged between six and 16 from the Kharkiv region have been stuck in Russian camps for weeks or, in some cases, months. In videos, children can be seen in a school playground in Crimea singing the Russian national anthem. Most appear not to know the words.

In Kherson, a large lime-green cuddly toy marks the spot where a child was killed by Russian shelling while walking along the road. In Scotland, children are safe, but they have been torn out of their homes, their communities and their country. In Crimea, children have been forcibly separated from their families and are being taught the history and customs of another state. In Ukraine, countless children have been killed.

Speaking at the Munich Security Conference last week, the US Vice-President, Kamala Harris, said:

“In the case of Russia’s actions in Ukraine, we have examined the evidence, we know the legal standards, and there is no doubt: these are crimes against humanity.”

She went on to say:

“And I say to all those who have perpetrated these crimes, and to their superiors who are complicit in those crimes—you will be held to account”.

A crime of aggression is the planning, initiation or execution of a large-scale and serious act of aggression using state military force. Crimes against humanity are considered to be among the most serious offences under the rules of war. Those laws ban attacks on civilians, or infrastructure vital to their survival, and are set out in international treaties. For example, in Ukraine, numerous missile and drone attacks in October and November deprived millions of citizens of at least temporary access to electricity, water, heat and related vital services ahead of the cold winter months.

According to the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, attacks on 23 November killed or injured more than 30 civilians and interrupted access to power for millions throughout Ukraine. The UN said that the entire population of Kyiv had no access to water for the day and that parts of the Kyiv, Lviv, and Odesa regions were completely disconnected from electricity.

Yulia Gorbunova, senior Ukraine researcher at Human Rights Watch, said:

“By repeatedly targeting critical energy infrastructure knowing this will deprive civilians of access to water, heat, and health services, Russia appears to be seeking unlawfully to create terror among civilians and make life unsustainable for them”.

She went on to say:

“With the coldest winter temperatures yet to come, conditions will become more life-threatening while Russia seems intent on making life untenable for as many Ukrainian civilians as possible.”

Since the beginning of the invasion, the World Health Organization has reported more than 600 attacks on healthcare facilities, personnel and transport in Ukraine, which have killed at least 100 people. In one of the most notorious attacks, Russian bombs destroyed a children’s and maternity hospital in Mariupol on 9 March 2022, injuring dozens of people and killing four, including a pregnant woman and her baby. That attack was justified by the Russians as the hospital had a supposed presence of Ukrainian armed forces, but the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe concluded, in a fact-finding report, that the air strike was a war crime. Ukraine’s first lady, Olena Zelenska, said of that attack:

“Horrible pain. We will never forget and never forgive”.

Aggression is one of the core crimes in international criminal law, alongside genocide, crimes against humanity, and war crimes. In 1946, the International Military Tribunal ruled that aggression was

“the supreme international crime”

because

“it contains within itself the accumulated evil of the whole.”

A crime of aggression is a crime against peace.

In 1991, Ukrainians voted overwhelmingly for independence. Ukraine, as its national anthem proclaims, did not die. The international community cannot stand aside to let the aggressor win.

Slava Ukraini! [Applause.]