Meeting of the Parliament 19 March 2026 [Draft]
I congratulate Mr Gibson, the member for Cunninghame North, on securing today’s debate with his members’ business motion, which I was pleased to sign.
More than four years have passed since Vladimir Putin launched his brutal all-out invasion of Ukraine in February 2022 in the worst escalation of the Russo-Ukrainian war since 2014. What Russia had intended as a lightning conquest of the capital city of Ukraine became a grinding war of attrition, yet the Ukrainian people continue to defend their sovereignty with extraordinary courage and resilience, despite appalling atrocities, hardship and casualties.
During the Easter recess last year, I joined a cross-party group of volunteers, who included Alex Cole-Hamilton MSP, Angus MacDonald MP and Danny Chambers MP, to drive a convoy of old national health service ambulances that were loaded with humanitarian and medical aid from London to Lviv. It was organised by Mighty Convoy, and we drove non-stop in shifts across seven countries and covered the distance in around 36 hours, fuelled primarily by caffeine, Haribo and a determination and shared commitment to stand with Ukraine.
As we crossed the border from Poland, the reality of total war hit us immediately. Instead of displaying typical advertisements for the consumer goods that we might be familiar with, billboards warned of disinformation and called for young people to volunteer as drone operators. Rural roads and village churches—which are much like our own in Scotland, although Ukrainian churches tend to have those glittering Orthodox onion domes—were lined with Ukrainian flags to mark the recent graves of fallen soldiers. It was a heartbreaking and stark reminder of the immense human cost borne by communities across that vast nation and an indication of what we ourselves went through a century or so ago, with the war memorials that were put up in every corner of every village and town in Scotland.
We delivered the ambulances to dedicated volunteers at the Christian Medical Association of Ukraine in Lviv, who ensured that they reached the front-line units sustaining the armed forces. Lviv’s beautiful old town, which is a United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization world heritage site reminiscent of Prague or Krakow, felt subdued under curfew and wartime restrictions, and there were eerie reminders of the vulnerability of Ukrainian cities to Russian attack, such as the netting strung from lampposts in case of a drone attack.
The next day, we visited the UNBROKEN Center. It is the national rehabilitation centre at Saint Panteleimon hospital, Ukraine’s pioneering, state-of-the-art medical facility, and it provides surgical care, prosthetics and mental health support to all those who have life-changing injuries from the war, some of which are too appalling to talk about.
As we toured, the nationwide minute of silence, a daily ritual to honour the fallen, began at 9 am. The medics at the centre expressed their keen interest in collaborating with Scotland, given the expertise that we have across the national health service, particularly at WestMARC—the west of Scotland mobility and rehabilitation centre—at the Queen Elizabeth university hospital and the Canniesburn plastic surgery and burns unit at Glasgow royal infirmary. We have real knowledge to share in that area, but we have a lot to learn about national resilience from Ukraine, too.
We met the Lviv mayor, Andriy Sadovyi, who revealed that his city diverts 20 per cent of its budget—the equivalent of all of Glasgow City Council’s council tax revenue—to procuring weapons for the front line, all the while managing bomb damage and caring for mass casualties. They do not want to let the Russians grind them down, and repairs are carried out promptly and vigorously to ensure that morale is maintained.
We also toured one of Ukraine’s many drone production facilities. What looked like a modest industrial unit in a suburban neighbourhood produces 10,000 advanced one-way attack drones monthly for the armed forces. As Mr Kerr has mentioned, drones now cause up to 80 per cent of daily combat losses and have transformed the nature of modern warfare, with people using them to actively hunt soldiers on the front line.
The most poignant moment came at a combat medic training base when we handed over the keys to one of the ambulances, which was bound for a field hospital far to the east of where we were. The brigade commander became emotional. In the larger picture, it was a modest gesture, but the gratitude and solidarity were overwhelming to him. He talked about a recent attack that had claimed more than 30 lives, and about how British-supplied air defences were now their primary shield against Russian rockets.
That journey reinforced what I have long believed—that the front line of European democracy is a mere three tanks of diesel away from Scotland. We all have a profound stake in Ukraine’s success. Around 40 per cent of all humanitarian aid arriving in Ukraine is donated, funded or transported by small organisations and charities, and, last September, we welcomed the team from Mighty Convoy here to the Parliament. Led by businessman Simon Brake, it is working through a growing network of engaged volunteers and partners across the United Kingdom to deliver vehicles and humanitarian aid to trusted charity partners. I encourage all members—and indeed anyone watching—to connect with those organisations and show their own solidarity.
It has been immense to see the contribution that Scotland has made to the war effort, as unnecessary and appalling as the war is. We have to remember that we must look after those who have sought refuge in Scotland, and we have to build connections within our own communities. I have certainly been enjoying doing that in Glasgow with the Association of Ukrainians in Great Britain, the Balgrayhill Ukrainian Tenants Alliance and others. We can do so much at home, while keeping up the effort to sustain Ukraine in its fight for freedom.