Hansard

I thank Ross Greer, Paul Sweeney and my Scottish National Party colleagues, who signed my motion to enable this debate to take place.

I welcome the members of the Ukraine Solidarity Campaign who are sitting in the public gallery, and thank them for their work to ensure that the war of aggression that has been waged against Ukraine remains in our minds, and for calling out those who backslide in their support for that embattled democratic nation.

Just over four years ago, life in Ukraine changed for ever. On 24 February 2022, what seemed unthinkable in 21st century Europe happened: Russian tanks rolled into Ukraine, from Belarus in the north, Russia in the east and occupied Crimea in the south. Thus began Russian President Putin’s illegal and full-scale invasion of proudly independent Ukraine, 92.3 per cent of whose citizens had voted to exit the Soviet Union in a referendum that took place barely two decades earlier.

Let us not forget that, in 2014, Russia unilaterally annexed Crimea by stealth, after thousands of Russian soldiers quietly infiltrated military bases and public buildings. The subsequent hastily arranged sham referendum, which excluded the status quo as an option, was boycotted by Crimeans who were loyal to Ukraine, but was cynically used by President Putin as justification to take Crimea under his control.

Western democracies, including the United Kingdom, must reflect and ask themselves uncomfortable questions about why they underestimated the clear and obvious warning signs that Putin’s Russia was a threat to peace. One example is his support of alleged separatists in eastern Ukraine who, in reality, wanted to merge with Russia. Infamously, they shot down Malaysia Airlines flight 17 in eastern Ukraine, killing 298 innocent people after being armed by Putin to fight an insurgency by proxy that continued for eight years prior to the full-scale invasion of Ukraine.

Even in the days leading to 24 February 2022, western diplomats thought Russia’s mobilisation to be a bluff, and that a full-scale invasion simply could not happen in this day and age. When Putin announced that Russian forces would carry out a so-called special military operation in Ukraine, the realisation finally dawned that Russia had launched the largest military assault on another European country since the second world war. Ukraine’s President Zelenskyy declared full military mobilisation and, against all expectations, Ukraine did not fall. In many areas, Putin’s forces were driven back over the border by a combination of heroic Ukrainian resistance and stupefyingly inept Russian military incompetence.

They withdrew, leaving stark evidence of atrocities behind them. At Bucha, a Kyiv suburb, 1,400 people were murdered during a 33-day occupation by Russian forces—a war crime with widespread evidence of the rape and torture of victims. In late spring, summer and autumn 2022, Ukraine achieved remarkable military success, liberating thousands of square kilometres that had recently been taken by Russia. Yet, as winter began, 20 per cent of Ukraine remained under occupation, as it does to this day. One consequence of that was the kidnapping and forced Russification of 19,000 Ukrainian children, who have been brought up to hate their country and who are still in captivity.

In those heady days of 2022, it seemed that one more big push in 2023, which was telegraphed for months in advance, would drive out the foe. It did not happen. The Russians laid vast minefields and prepared defences in depth. A timid President Biden and NATO provided Ukraine with billions of dollars in weaponry and economic aid, yet starved Ukraine of armour, missiles, jet fighters and munitions, and had a blatant but unstated policy of stopping Ukraine from losing but doing nothing to help it to win. A plethora of weapons in penny packets with different calibres required a bewildering array of training and spare parts and, coupled with a refusal to allow weapons to be fired into Russia, it hobbled Ukraine’s military effectiveness and ensured further degradation of Ukrainian land, in which all munitions would fall. It also enabled Russian logistics to move supplies almost to the border unhindered. Fear of nuclear escalation was the alleged reason for such reticence, as if Putin would nuke an area that he wants to incorporate into Russia. Ukraine fought on, with one hand tied behind its back. The heroism of its hopelessly outnumbered soldiers and stoic civilians is truly remarkable.

We must never forget those who bear the brunt of this unnecessary and unprovoked war. The Center for Strategic and International Studies estimates that Ukraine has suffered up to 600,000 battlefield casualties, with 140,000 deaths and tens of thousands of civilians dead and wounded. Russia, more profligate with the lives of its soldiers, has sustained around 1.2 million casualties, including 325,000 killed, with continuing losses of 1,000 men a day, many of whom are young conscripts. That is an appalling waste of human life.