Ukraine: Forcible Removal of Children

Lord West of Spithead Excerpts

Monday 24th November 2025 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Chapman of Darlington (Lab)]

Accountability and responsibility for breaches of international humanitarian law and atrocities matter a great deal to this Government, and we will not compromise on that in any situation. As for what this agreement may finally look like, I hope that there is one because we all want to see a lasting peace sustained. The negotiations at the moment are between the US and Ukraine, with the support of the United Kingdom and others, but what matters more than anything, in order to get that sustainable peace, is to hear the voices of the Ukrainians and for the peace agreement, whatever it might look like, to be something that the Ukrainians can accept.

[Lord West of Spithead (Lab)]

Should the present negotiations fail, which one hopes they will not, one of the few big levers that Europeans have, as distinct from Americans, are the frozen assets. We have been particularly poor at utilising that. Have we been putting in place mechanisms whereby, should the negotiations fail, we can use those assets for the benefit of Ukraine to show Putin that this is really not a game worth playing?