Hansard

I thank Alex Cole-Hamilton for his question and pay tribute to him for his involvement and steadfast support for the people of Ukraine in Scotland. We are looking at all that we can do in terms of concessionary travel and the accommodation that we can provide through the £50 million long-term resettlement fund, which allows properties to be brought back into use. That has already been done for 750 properties, and more projects are in the pipeline.

More than 19,000 of the arrivals in Scotland have come through the Scottish Government’s successful supersponsor scheme. When we compare the numbers to other schemes, such as the Syrian resettlement scheme, under which we welcomed 3,000 arrivals over a period of five years, we can appreciate the scale of the current challenge and the herculean effort of all our key partners in ensuring that displaced people receive a warm Scottish welcome.

We have been assisted in welcoming vast numbers to our country by the consular corps staff from Ukraine, Poland, Romania and many other countries. I take this opportunity to thank Andrii Kuslii and Yevhen Mankovsky for working with us in the past year. I am hugely grateful to them for the expertise that they have shared on issues such as schooling, housing, culture and community integration. Their input has been invaluable to our response.

I also take the opportunity to thank all those who have opened their homes and welcomed displaced people from Ukraine into their families. They have acted with kindness and in recognition of a shared humanity with our friends from Ukraine. It is our shared mission to ensure that our friends from Ukraine can call Scotland their home for as long as they need it to be, and we are seeking to ensure access to sustainable, longer-term accommodation for displaced people.

When the war broke out, we acted swiftly to ensure that welcome accommodation was available. As well as mobilising hotels, we chartered two passenger ships to temporarily house arrivals from Ukraine. They provided a safe place, at pace, in a time of need for large numbers of people who were fleeing war, but it was always our intention that those measures would and should be temporary.

In September, we launched our Ukraine longer-term resettlement fund, making up to £50 million available to bring empty council and rented social landlords’ properties into use and to increase the housing supply. The homes provided will be good, affordable and quality homes, and they will be available for rent for up to three years, after which some will continue to be available as social rented homes.

Work is already under way in Aberdeen, Glasgow, North Lanarkshire and North Ayrshire to bring more than 750 void properties into use for the benefit of displaced people. I visited the homes in North Lanarkshire and was delighted to see the efforts that have been implemented to ensure that displaced people have a suitable home to live in while they are here, in Scotland, and also to see the support from the community for those people being here.

The Scottish Government has provided significant funding of around £200 million during the past year and it is set to invest more than £70 million next year to ensure that those who have been displaced by the illegal war in Ukraine are supported to rebuild their lives in our communities. However, our commitments need to be matched by the UK Government. With UK funding set to fall from £10,500 to £5,900 for each of those who arrive after 1 January 2023, we urge the UK Government to do more to support displaced Ukrainians across the UK.

There is clearly a wealth of activity to help displaced people from Ukraine to settle well across the country. That would not have been possible without the continued help, support and collaboration of our local authority partners, the Convention of Scottish Local Authorities and third sector organisations and volunteers. The truth is that fully integrating displaced people from Ukraine into our society goes beyond securing a visa and finding accommodation. It is a commitment to ensuring that those who have come from Ukraine can enjoy the same rights and opportunities as those who are already living in Scotland.

Local authorities, third sector organisations and volunteers have been instrumental in providing displaced people with support and advice to help them to access a wide array of services and opportunities. Unfortunately, I do not have the time to thank all those organisations for their valued contributions, but they should be assured that the important contributions that they have made and continue to make are being felt up and down the country. They are literally changing lives.

I also thank those Ukrainians who have decided to make Scotland their temporary home. They are making a fantastic contribution to the communities that they are becoming an integral part of. They bring skills, culture and diversity, which we welcome with open arms. Many of our guests have taken up employment and are settling well into communities across Scotland. Children and young adults are also settling well into schools, colleges and universities across the country.

As we solemnly recognise that a year has passed since the illegal invasion of Ukraine, we all hope that Ukraine will soon have peace restored. Our message remains one of strong support and solidarity, and I say once again to the Ukrainian community in Scotland—you are welcome here for as long as you choose to make Scotland your home.

On Tuesday night, the Presiding Officer and I hosted the postcards for Ukraine event in the Parliament building. A number of powerful speeches were made that evening, but what struck me—they stick with me still—were the words of Artem, an injured soldier from Ukraine who is receiving treatment in Scotland. He said:

“May your hearts never give up on Ukraine.”

Our hearts will never give up. The people of Scotland, this Government and this Parliament will always hold Ukraine in our hearts, and we will always show solidarity with the people of Ukraine.

I move,

That the Parliament condemns in the strongest possible terms the illegal Russian war against Ukraine, which began on 24 February 2022; reiterates its solidarity with the people and government of Ukraine; repeats its concern about the grave threat to the safety and security of Ukrainian citizens, and mourns each and every death caused by Russia’s illegal aggression; asserts the vital importance of Ukraine defeating Russia’s aggression and calls upon the international community to provide Ukraine with the necessary military, financial and humanitarian support; rejects Russia’s illegal attempts to annex the Ukrainian regions of Donetsk, Luhansk, Kherson and Zaporizhzhia via sham referenda; commends all countries who have welcomed displaced Ukrainians and are providing crucial life-saving humanitarian assistance to Ukrainians in need of support; thanks the organisations and people that have supported displaced Ukrainians to settle in Scotland; declares unequivocally that all Ukrainians who have made Scotland their temporary home will be welcome for as long as they need; welcomes the poignant Postcards from Ukraine exhibition hosted in the Scottish Parliament, and wishes a speedy and peaceful resolution to the war that ensures Ukrainian sovereignty, democracy, independence and territorial integrity within its internationally-recognised borders.