Hansard

I rise to offer the full-throated support of Scottish Liberal Democrats for the Government’s motion, and I offer our welcome and thanks to the consul of Ukraine.

I remind members of my entry in the register of members’ interests, which shows that I am a host under the homes for Ukraine scheme. It is on that point that I commence my remarks.

Six months ago, my family opened our home to a Ukrainian design graduate. She was born in Mariupol but grew up in Donetsk. She had to flee her home nine years ago, when Russia invaded her town and destroyed her home. She had been a refugee in other parts of Ukraine ever since then, until the bombs started falling a year ago and she and her family realised that it was too late and that they had to move.

The experience has been amazing and has enriched our lives in many ways. She is still with us and will, I hope, be with us for some time to come. She has joined us at many family events. In the evenings, she sometimes reads to us messages from Sasha, her cousin, who is on the eastern front and is now deployed in a forward position around the defence of Bakhmut—anyone who is following the war will know that that is the worst place on the planet to be right now.

On weekends, she joins other Ukrainians in church halls in Edinburgh to use brown, green and white old clothes for the manufacture of camouflage netting to send to her relatives on the eastern front. Such examples remind us with visceral clarity just how easy we have it here and how close the privations of war for the people of Ukraine are. They are not just the front line for Ukraine’s territorial integrity or for securing their freedom from Putin; they are the front line for the free democracies of the west, and they deserve our thanks.

On 24 February 2022, our world shifted on its axis. Russian soldiers, tanks and instruments of war crossed the border and rolled into the sovereign territory of Ukraine. That day, newspapers carried headlines—which we hoped that we would never see again—of war in Europe.

Vladimir Putin has torn up the fabric of global security. He has sanctioned unimaginable atrocities and shattered the long peace that we had all enjoyed. He does not belong in the Kremlin; he belongs in the Hague on indictment for war crimes.

As the invasion commenced, the world watched on with bated breath. Observers and politicians alike, including Putin himself, predicted the imminent fall of Ukraine. A year on, Ukraine is still standing. Putin and, to an extent, the entire world underestimated the resolve of the Ukrainian spirit and its people’s defiance. The day after war broke out, President Zelenskyy offered a stark warning to Ukraine’s invaders when he told them:

“When you attack us, you will not see our backs, you will see our faces.”

That is the perfect encapsulation of Ukrainian resistance.

Even so, the effects of war have been deadly for Ukraine. The UN has estimated that the conflict is responsible for 18,000 civilian casualties, including more than 7,000 deaths. In September, the war hit another grim milestone, with 1,000 children having become casualties of war—nearly 500 of them have died.

One of those children was an eight-year-old boy known as Sasha. According to his parents, he was a very good boy who was always helpful and loving to his younger siblings. In the same week that the UN announced those statistics, Sasha was killed in a shelling attack at his home in southern Ukraine. Speaking to a journalist, his father said:

“I wish it would take me, not my kid.”

That is just one example of the devastation that has taken place over the past year, and it is only right that we take time to commemorate and remember the lives lost, as we are doing now.

Martin Luther King Jnr said:

“Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.”

This war may have been an injustice to the people of Ukraine, but it is a threat to the peace and democracy of the world. It is therefore our duty as global citizens to do all that we can, and I am proud to say that Scotland has been doing its part.

More than 20,000 refugees have arrived in Scotland in the past year, and the people of Scotland have opened their homes and their hearts to the Ukrainian people. In my constituency, Volunteer Edinburgh has done an incredible job of meeting displaced Ukrainians arriving at the airport and co-ordinating donations, learning centres and onward travel to the Ukrainian reception hub at Gogar, which is also in my constituency.

However, we must remember that we can and should do more—we have heard some of that today. Figures that were released today show that 6,200 Ukrainians are still in temporary accommodation. They need to know what comes next once their short-term placements end. They cannot be allowed to live their lives in constant limbo, worried about what comes next.

The Government could help today by, as I asked in my intervention on the minister, extending the free bus pass scheme to include refugees on all schemes, whether they are from Ukraine, Syria or Afghanistan. It could provide comprehensive language support and identify the skills of the people arriving. That would help to match them with a job opportunity so that they could make a long-term home here if they so wished.

The vibrant stripes of blue and yellow have been emblazoned into the minds and the hearts of people around the world this past year. The colours of the Ukrainian flag represent the industry of its people, because they symbolise blue skies over corn and golden wheat fields. The flag also harbours a deeper meaning: freedom above bread. On this anniversary, the world comes together to remember everything that has been lost. We also hope that, one day soon, Ukraine will enjoy its blue skies of freedom once more.