Ukraine

James MacCleary Excerpts

Wednesday 25th February 2026 Commons Chamber

[James MacCleary (Lewes) (LD)]

Four years ago yesterday, Vladimir Putin launched his deadly full-scale invasion of Ukraine. Four years on, we face a solemn reminder of the death and destruction that has ensued. An estimated 1.8 million soldiers have been killed or wounded, or have gone missing, on both sides. Up to 325,000 Russian troops and as many as 140,000 Ukrainians have been killed. The United Nations has recorded at least 15,000 civilian deaths and more than 40,000 people injured, including at least 763 children, but it says that the toll is likely much higher. That is why the Liberal Democrats are absolutely clear in their support for Ukraine.

In the face of Putin’s aggression and Donald Trump’s unreliability, Europe must send an unambiguous signal: national sovereignty is not negotiable, and we will not stand idly by at this time. We will not accept that might is right. We will not allow Ukraine to be sacrificed on the altar of appeasement. We all want peace and a just and lasting settlement, but we must be clear that Vladimir Putin has no interest in peace; he remains hellbent on the subjugation of Ukraine. Although we welcome diplomatic efforts, we remain deeply concerned about the specifics of any American security guarantees. The unfortunate truth is that President Trump is unreliable, unpredictable and, to be frank, disdainful of the rule of law. That means that Europe must step up. The UK and France have committed to a potential military deployment to Ukraine, should a peace deal be agreed.

The Liberal Democrats support that commitment in principle, but Parliament must have a vote on any deployment of UK personnel—I welcomed the Prime Minister’s very clear statement on that—because democratic oversight is essential. The Government must also be transparent about timescales and ensure that our armed forces have the resources to support such a mission. It is great to hear from the Secretary of State today about the £200 million of funding that he has accelerated for that purpose. Crucially, we must have clarity at the right time about the terms of engagement for those forces, if and when that deployment takes place.

Supporting Ukraine long term is not just about political will; it is about practical capability. Any peace settlement must focus on defending Ukraine, strengthening deterrence and creating sustainable conditions for a lasting peace. It must not be a deal that effectively rewards Russian aggression. The UK must ensure that Ukraine’s interests—not Putin’s territorial ambitions nor Donald Trump’s desire for a grubby carve-up—remain at the heart of negotiations.

We must remain absolutely focused on cutting off the resources that fuel Putin’s war machine. Too many of those who comment on this conflict fail fully to understand its historical and cultural context. To speak of it as a conflict that Putin will just stop on fair terms is a failure to grasp the fact that his war in Ukraine is now central to sustaining his mafia state and his role as its kingpin. To speak of major territorial concessions by Ukraine is to ask it to give into a bullying neighbour that has spent not 12 but hundreds of years repeatedly attempting to control it and deny its right to exist as a nation. Any agreement requires a deep understanding of those countries that has been entirely absent from the rhetoric in the United States and is too often absent from commentary in this country.

We are keen to support the practical steps taken by our Government. The decision to ban UK maritime services for Russian liquefied natural gas was particularly welcome. The Liberal Democrats had been calling for that for some months, so it was great to finally see it come to fruition, but the implementation has been slow. Since 2022, UK-owned or insured LNG carriers have transported £45 billion-worth of Russian products. No British money should be supporting Russia’s war. The Government must move at pace to enforce the ban, and it must go further—I welcome any updates on that from Ministers. We have also called for the oil price cap to be lowered to $30 per barrel, with stricter enforcement.

We must confront the reality that Russia is actively circumventing sanctions through third countries. Georgia has increasingly been used as a back-door route for sanctioned goods and financial flows into Russia’s economy, undermining the pressure we and our allies are trying to apply. The UK should be prepared to sanction those facilitating that evasion, starting with Bidzina Ivanishvili, Georgia’s oligarchic de facto leader, whose influence has steered the country away from its Euro-Atlantic path and towards Moscow’s orbit. We must also proscribe Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps in full. The IRGC is not only destabilising the middle east; it is directly supporting Putin’s war machine, including through the provision and production of drones used to terrorise Ukrainian cities. It was also revealed to the Defence Committee that

“Russia can only maintain this war because China is…bankrolling it”,

and that some sources suggest that up to 60% of the funding comes from China. The Government must increase pressure on Beijing to stop funding Putin’s deadly war.

Then there is the £2.5 billion pounds from Roman Abramovich’s sale of Chelsea football club. That money should have helped suffering Ukrainian civilians over a year ago, and could have supported efforts to rescue at least some of the 20,000 children abducted by Russian forces. The Liberal Democrats called urgently for those funds to be delivered. We welcome the fact that the Government are now threatening legal action, but it should not have taken this long.

It seems that everyone now agrees that we must urgently unlock frozen Russian assets. The UK has frozen £30 billion-worth under our sanctions regime, but it sits idle in British accounts while Ukraine desperately needs $120 billion next year alone to resist Russia. So what exactly is blocking it? The legal frameworks exist, but the political will—so far, at least—is lacking. The Prime Minister must personally step in to drive that forward, because we are watching Ukraine’s defences being stretched to breaking point while we sit on the very resources that could help it. The Ukrainian people are fighting for us; the least we can do is unlock the money to help them win. My hon. Friend the Member for Bicester and Woodstock (Calum Miller) has introduced a Bill to seize those frozen assets and direct the proceeds to Ukraine’s defence and reconstruction. Putin must be punished, not rewarded. A recent Government report showed that UK imports from Russia had reached £1.7 billion by June last year, up 21% on the previous year. Perhaps Ministers can tell us what steps the Government are taking to restrict this profitable trade for the Kremlin.

The international community, including this Government and the previous Government, have rightly condemned Russia on the international stage. Through its illegal invasion, cyber-attacks, energy coercion and interference in democratic processes, the Kremlin has demonstrated consistent disregard for international law. The UK Government must maintain an unequivocal position opposing Russia’s readmission to the G7, and must work with allies to ensure that this stance is upheld across all multilateral bodies.

I want to return to the human cost. Over 20,000 Ukrainian children have been abducted since the full-scale invasion began. As a parent with two small children at home, I find it very hard not to put myself in the place of those Ukrainian families, torn apart by concern for their missing children who have been cruelly snatched away as part of Putin’s wider agenda of extinguishing Ukrainian culture and identity. These mass abductions constitute war crimes and crimes against humanity, and any update from Ministers on what we are doing to help recover those children would be very welcome. I really welcome the award given to the hon. Member for Paisley and Renfrewshire South (Johanna Baxter); she has been a dogged campaigner on this issue, and I cannot think of anybody more worthy of that recognition. President Putin must be held accountable, and the outstanding International Criminal Court arrest warrant against him must be implemented. This country and the Government must pick up the mantle of tracking down and rescuing those children, to bring them home to their families where they belong.

Reports from Russia paint a sobering picture of what four years of war has meant. For Russia, it has meant a fundamentally deformed economy, legal system and society. Courts clear soldiers of murder and rape because they have signed military contracts, recruiting has become desperately difficult despite enormous spending, and an entire generation of young Russian men has been wiped out by this war to fulfil Putin’s ambitions.

For Ukraine, these four years have meant something else entirely. They have meant extraordinary courage in the face of impossible odds; they have meant soldiers who began fighting in muddy trenches with artillery now finding themselves in a war dominated by drones, a conflict that has evolved faster than anyone imagined; and they have meant watching Russia systematically destroy the very things that keep people alive through the winter. Just last month, Russian missiles tore through power stations across the country, and hundreds of thousands of people in Dnipropetrovsk and Zaporizhzhia woke up to find themselves without electricity or heating as temperatures dropped to minus 20°C. This is the coldest winter Ukraine has seen in a decade, and Putin’s strategy is clear: if his army cannot break Ukraine’s will, he will try to freeze its people into submission.

Because of the courage of the Ukrainian people—and, I am very proud to say, the support of allies such as Britain—Russia no longer poses a risk of conquering Kyiv. Ukraine pushed the Russians back in Kharkiv and Kherson, against an adversary with much greater resources, although Russia remains on the frontline. Ukraine should not have to face Putin’s aggression alone; Britain must continue to lead in Europe, standing shoulder to shoulder with Ukraine in not just words but deeds, and with enforceable security guarantees rather than empty promises. That means cutting off Putin’s revenue streams completely and seizing frozen assets. It means democratic oversight of troop deployments; it means ensuring that Ukraine’s territorial integrity is non-negotiable in any peace settlement; and it means doing everything we possibly can to get those stolen children back to their families.

Four years on, the protection of Ukraine’s sovereignty must remain central to Britain’s priorities, because if we fail Ukraine, we fail the international order, and if we fail the international order, we invite aggression everywhere.