Meeting of the Parliament 19 March 2026 [Draft]
I pay tribute to and thank my friend Kevin Stewart for his many years of public service and wish him all the best for the future.
I am also grateful for the opportunity to speak in support of the motion, in the name of Kenny Gibson, marking four years since Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine—an event that has reshaped that nation’s future and reverberated across our continent. We should, of course, be clear that the conflict did not begin in 2022—Kenny Gibson made that point—but has its roots in the illegal annexation of Crimea in 2014 and the destabilisation of eastern Ukraine through proxy war in Donetsk and Luhansk.
What we have witnessed since is not an isolated event but a sustained assault on sovereignty, international law and the principle that borders cannot be redrawn by force. Above all, the human cost has been staggering.
Last month, President Zelenskyy, whose courageous leadership has rightly been recognised across the globe, said that 55,000 Ukrainian combatants had been killed. Others put the figure higher—indeed, Kenny Gibson cited another figure. Some 200,000 or more Russian military personnel have been killed. Again, others put the figure much higher. More than 15,000 civilians have been killed and more than 40,000 injured. That is a senseless waste of human life.
Millions more people have been displaced within Ukraine or forced to flee their country. In Scotland, we have seen that human impact directly as thousands of Ukrainians have found refuge in our communities. That solidarity speaks to our fundamental values. Those who have come here, as others have come from other conflicts, are welcome to be with us as long as they need, although I am sure that we all hope that they will be able to return home safely soon.
In that vein, I was pleased to meet and speak with Zhenya Dove when she was at the Parliament as part of the Ukrainian community in Scotland as they brought their exhibition entitled “The Weight We Carried” to this place. Being confronted with the question of what I would take if I had to pack my life into one suitcase was a stark demonstration of the reality that many Ukrainians have had to face in dealing with that question through their lived experience rather than through the hypothetical scenario that was put to me.
In this debate, we must confront the wider implications for countries across eastern Europe, including Poland, the Baltic states and Moldova. This war has understandably triggered profound concern. They consider the history—they look at Ukraine and ask, if aggression is rewarded, who might be next?
That is why concerns about the future cohesion of long-established arrangements for mutual defence cannot be dismissed. Donald Trump’s various utterances about Europe and Greenland have raised doubts about the unconditional nature of collective defence. If that guarantee becomes conditional or transactional, the credibility of deterrence is weakened, and if deterrence is weakened, the risks to peace increase.
On the issue of peace, Kenny Gibson’s motion also speaks about the nature of any future peace. Peace is the end destination that we all must aim for, but it must be real and it must be meaningful. A settlement that rewards aggression, that involves ceding territory at the barrel of a gun and that is without security guarantees risks not ending the conflict but merely pausing it. History teaches us that unstable peace can sow the seeds of future war.
Our message today should be clear: Ukraine must be supported not only in defending itself today but in securing a just and lasting peace tomorrow. That requires sustained assistance, unity among allies and a recognition that the stakes extend beyond Ukraine’s borders. We should affirm not only our solidarity with the people of Ukraine but our commitment to the principles that underpin peace and stability across Europe.