Ukraine

Gordon McKee Excerpts

Wednesday 25th February 2026 Commons Chamber

[Richard Foord (Honiton and Sidmouth) (LD)]

Last night, I joined the Minister for the Armed Forces and the former leader of the Conservative party, the right hon. Member for Chingford and Woodford Green (Sir Iain Duncan Smith), at Trafalgar Square for a rally for Ukraine. It was a really moving event. Hosts from across the UK and Ukrainian families—including children, mothers, wives and other relatives—were all gathered in Trafalgar Square, where on 8 May 1945, Brits welcomed victory in Europe. Today I will set out why we in the UK need to see Ukraine reach a victory in Europe.

As I thank the Ukrainian people for their courage and determination, I want to talk about what we are not doing right here in the UK; for instance, we could go so much further on economic sanctions on Russia. But first, I want to address comments that former Prime Minister Boris Johnson made on “Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg”. He said there was

“no logical reason that I can see why we shouldn’t send peaceful ground forces there to show our support, our constitutional support, for a free, independent Ukraine.”

We do not have peaceful ground forces in the British Army; we have warfighters, because warfighters make the best peacekeepers, but be in no doubt that there is no distinction between a warfighter and a peacekeeper. The notion of peaceful ground forces is really for the birds. Rather, we need to double down on what we are doing currently, which is proving successful in keeping the Russians at bay. First, there is what we are doing through economic sanctions. Urals crude—Russia’s main grade of crude oil—now trades at a 25% to 30% discount compared with our Brent crude, and exports of it are at their lowest since 2020. In January, year-on-year oil and gas budget receipts for the Kremlin halved to just under 400 billion roubles. The British Government announced in October last year that they would ban all imports of Russian-origin crude oil products refined in third countries. Alongside that, the Chancellor of the Exchequer said:

“We will hold to account all those enabling”

Putin’s illegal invasion of Ukraine. The Minister for Europe and North America has appeared before the Foreign Affairs Committee, and we talked about sanctions. The work that the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office does on identifying entities to sanction is good, but it could go so much further. The Centre for Research on Energy and Clean Air has found that refineries in countries like India, Turkey and Brunei continue to use Russian crude oil, which continues to be exported to Europe and the UK. That said, the EU imposed a complete ban on imports from third countries on 21 January.

The ban on direct imports, which came into force in the UK in 2022, has had a so-called refining loophole that enabled the import of £4 billion of jet fuel and other oil products made at refineries in India and Turkey, which run partially on Russian crude. The research centre estimates that £1.6 billion-worth of products imported from those refineries would have been made with imported Russian oil. Our constituents will hear those figures on the one hand, then look, on the other hand, at the £3 billion of taxpayers’ money that we are rightly giving to Ukraine every year at the moment, and will not be able to reconcile the two; nor should they. We have to properly sanction the Russian Federation. Finally, we must thank the Ukrainians for their courage and determination.

[Gordon McKee (Glasgow South) (Lab)]

Will the hon. Member join me in recognising recent opinion polling that has shown that the UK population remains steadfast in its support for the people of Ukraine? Part of that is about local associations of Ukrainians, like those in Glasgow, who promote Ukrainian culture and remind us all of the contribution that they are making to our country.

[Richard Foord]

The hon. Member makes an excellent point. That Ukrainian culture was on full display last night, at the Trafalgar Square rally.

At the moment, we sometimes talk down NATO, and certainly its European parts. We should not, because in NATO we have the strongest military alliance that the world has ever seen. Putin should be in no doubt about the intent of NATO states to fulfil their NATO obligations, including to such members as Estonia and Latvia, which have Russian minority populations.

At the rally yesterday evening, the right hon. Member for Chingford and Woodford Green reminded us of a quote from Churchill:

“Give us the tools and we will finish the job”.

He said that in 1941 to the British people, and indeed to allies across the water. That very much applies today. We need to think about how we can give Ukraine the tools that it needs to finish the job. More than that, we need to deprive Russia of tools, so that it can no longer wage this war of aggression against a people who want what we in this country have, and sometimes take for granted: democracy and liberty.