Ukraine

Derek Twigg Excerpts

Wednesday 15th October 2025 Commons Chamber

[Yvette Cooper]

We have discussed this issue considerably with the US. I welcome President Trump’s decision to allow NATO allies to purchase vital US military equipment for Ukraine’s defence, including Patriot missiles. President Trump called for a peace process, and President Zelensky was ready to have those peace discussions, but President Putin has done the opposite. There is a growing sense of frustration, which everybody can see, about the fact that President Putin has just ignored the requests for peace discussions and is instead seeking to do the opposite—not just in Ukraine but in attempts to destabilise NATO airspace.

[Derek Twigg (Widnes and Halewood) (Lab)]

The NATO Parliamentary Assembly delegation—of which the right hon. Member for Wetherby and Easingwold (Sir Alec Shelbrooke), who is sat on the Opposition Front Bench, is deputy leader—met the Ukrainian delegation at the weekend and also heard from President Zelensky. The line that we heard time and again from them was about the need for more weapons, equipment and munitions, particularly deep-fire missiles and drone munitions. I welcome the Foreign Secretary’s statement. A lot has been said about the need to unfreeze Russian assets and use their full value. She said that work is being done on that. We in this House have on numerous occasions seen things happen quickly; things need to move at pace to ensure that the free industrial capacity that Ukraine still has, which can make those things, is funded and used as quickly as possible.

[Yvette Cooper]

I welcome my hon. Friend’s point. We want progress to be made as rapidly as possible. He will know that the UK has stepped up support for Ukraine this year, which includes £4.5 billion of military support—more than ever before—and thousands of air defence missiles and drones. We want to go further with the Russian sovereign assets process.