Hansard

I congratulate Jenni Minto not only on the motion but on her excellent and very moving speech. I completely agree with Collette Stevenson that we absolutely must see Ukraine prevail against this aggression, otherwise there is no hope or future in any kind of rules-based world order.

I declare an interest that people will not read in my register of interests; it is one that I wear as a badge of pride—indeed, of honour. I am one of about 300 British politicians to have been sanctioned by name by the Kremlin, along with my friend Douglas Ross and, I believe, the First Minister—maybe Angus Robertson, too, although I do not know.

Let me be blunt: this war is not

“a quarrel in a far-away country between people of whom we know nothing”.

Those infamous words do not apply here. The Ukrainians are our near neighbours and we should not let the war slip from our collective line of vision or from our very consciousness.

There is a risk that that is happening already. There was hardly a mention of Ukraine in yesterday’s stage 3 budget debate—a budget set in the context of the global economic impact of Putin’s criminal aggression. That does not speak well of the level of our collective debate or our willingness to keep the war that is raging on our continent at the forefront of our minds. We are kidding ourselves if we think for one moment that we can talk about solidarity with the people of Ukraine and the raw courage of President Zelenskyy and not acknowledge the cost of that support, because it is real.

I am not just talking about the inflationary shock, the effects of which are felt in a global cost of living crisis whose impact we are rightly and collectively attempting to mitigate, especially in respect of the most vulnerable in our society, but about the military material, practical support and training that our armed forces are giving the Ukrainians to equip them with the latest weapon systems in order that they are able to defend themselves.

I must of course mention, too, as did my friend Alexander Burnett, the compassionate support that we are rightly extending to the Ukrainian people who are now living in our homes and among us as our guests. We should remain resolute in the support that we have collectively pledged to Ukraine and in respect of what the UK Government is doing to bolster the Ukrainian war effort as Ukrainians heroically resist the violence that is meted out by Vladimir Putin.

Today, I want to strike a note of caution, because the people of Russia are very close to the hearts of my family. It is right that we continue to talk explicitly about Vladimir Putin and his grisly gang in the Kremlin, and it is right that those crimes are continuously highlighted so that we in the west remember why the people of Ukraine are fighting for their freedom and why we must support them. However, we must differentiate, and beware of giving in to Russophobia, as many of the people of Russia are as appalled as we are with Putin’s gangsterism. Putin is manipulating a whole nation and distorting reality for its people by shutting down independent media outlets, crushing dissent and even murdering his opponents. The Russian people are being lied to.

The Kremlin will be listening to—and no doubt cataloguing—what we say in the chamber tonight. We should make it perfectly clear that we condemn Vladimir Putin and his crimes and demand that he be brought to justice. We want the Russian people to know exactly what is going on—what is happening to their husbands, sons and brothers in the killing fields of eastern Ukraine. As parliamentarians, we have a special responsibility to make it clear, and repeatedly so, that Putin’s invasion—because that is what it is—and occupation of Crimea is illegal, and a violation of the sovereign territory of Ukraine.

Putin should be held to account for the illegal downing of the Malaysia Airlines flight MH17. He was at least complicit in—if not downright guilty of—mass murder. It is Putin who ordered the illegal bombardment of civilian areas, the illegal torturing of prisoners and the use of illegal weapons in Ukraine. The horrors that we have seen over the past eight years are down to him. Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin will one day have to answer for his crimes.