Ukraine

Judith Cummins Excerpts

Thursday 18th December 2025 Commons Chamber

[The Minister for Defence Readiness and Industry (Luke Pollard)]

With permission, I will update the House on Ukraine.

As we prepare for Christmas, the people of Ukraine are fighting. It is their 1,394th day of resistance since Putin’s full-scale invasion, and their fourth Christmas of the war. I would like to update the House on the work that we are doing to bring a just and lasting peace to Ukraine by ensuring that it is in the best possible position on the battlefield and at the negotiating table. A small number of members of our armed forces are at the heart of that work, whether they are delivering military training in the UK, transporting kit to Ukraine, or helping to develop innovative new warfighting capabilities. Last week, our armed forces and our country lost one of our brightest and best, Lance Corporal George Hooley. He was a model soldier who was tragically killed in Ukraine observing trials of a new defensive drone system, well away from the frontline. I know that the whole House will have been moved by the final letter he wrote to his family, which they released yesterday to coincide with his repatriation, and that the whole House will join me in sending our heartfelt thoughts and condolences to all his family, friends and colleagues.

This Government and this House will stand with our Ukrainian friends for as long as it takes. Twelve months ago, I set out five areas in which this Government would increase that support, and with the backing of Members across this House and the commitment of countless defence personnel, partners in industry and allied nations, we have delivered on all five. First, we have strengthened Ukraine’s military capabilities, with a record £4.5 billion military support package this year. That support package includes supplies of tens of thousands of rounds of advanced missiles and ammunition; 85,000 drones, up from the 10,000 gifted last year; and the new Gravehawk air defence system, co-developed with our Danish partners. Secondly, we have now trained more than 62,000 Ukrainians in the UK, alongside our Operation Interflex allies, and we have extended that programme until at least the end of 2026.

Thirdly, to boost Ukraine’s indigenous defence industrial base so that its destiny is increasingly in its own hands, I have led further trade missions to Kyiv. We have also signed new Government-to-Government co-operation agreements that have enhanced the sharing of battlefield technologies, and, in March, we facilitated the £1.6 billion deal for 5,000 lightweight air defence missiles. That supports 700 jobs at Thales in Belfast. This demonstrates how growing defence spending across the globe can act as an engine for growth across all our nations and regions in the UK.

Fourthly, the UK has ramped up our international leadership, with the Defence Secretary stepping up in the spring to co-chair, alongside Germany, the Ukraine Defence Contact Group of over 50 nations. Since then, our UDCG partners have pledged over £50 billion of military support for Ukraine, and at Tuesday’s UDCG meeting, we confirmed the UK’s biggest single-year investment in air defence for Ukraine. I am pleased to confirm to the House that the UK is providing £600 million-worth of air defence systems, missiles and automated turrets to shoot down Russian drones and defend Ukrainian civilians. This includes Raven systems to protect frontline units, Gravehawk systems that reinforce Ukraine’s ability to protect key infrastructure from Russia’s deep-strike barrages, and counter-drone turrets designed specifically to defeat Shahed-style attack drones at scale and at lower cost.

Fifthly and finally, alongside our allies we have significantly ramped up sanctions and economic pressure on the Russian economy. We have sanctioned Russia’s largest oil majors; lowered the crude oil price cap alongside EU partners, contributing to a 35% fall in Russia’s oil revenues year on year; introduced a maritime services ban on Russian liquefied natural gas, which will be phased in over the next year; and announced our intention to ban the import of oil products of Russian origin that have been refined in third countries.

Just this morning, we announced a further 24 sanction designations across the Russian oil, military and financial sectors to further ramp up economic pressure on Putin. As the Prime Minister said to the coalition of the willing last month, the UK is ready to move with the EU to provide financial support for Ukraine based on the value of immobilised Russian assets. We are working with EU and G7 partners to advance this aim, and I hope for further positive discussions on it today.

We have tightened sanctions, strengthened alliances, boosted industrial co-operation, delivered military training, and provided the biggest annual package of UK military support for Ukraine to date. Yesterday, we went further, with the Chancellor and the Foreign Secretary calling time on Roman Abramovich’s inaction. The Government have issued a licence that enables the transfer of more than £2.5 billion from the sale of Chelsea football club to benefit the victims of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. We urge Abramovich to honour the commitments he made over three years ago or face court action.

Twelve months ago, I pledged that this Government would provide iron-clad support for Ukraine. That is what we have delivered, and it is what we will continue to deliver for as long as Putin continues his barbaric assault on the Ukrainian people. I know that that support will continue to enjoy cross-party support in this House.

What was not on the table last December was peace talks. On Monday, the Prime Minister was in Berlin with European leaders to advance President Trump’s peace initiative. The leaders welcomed the significant progress that has been made, and reiterated their commitment to work together to provide robust security guarantees and support economic recovery as part of any peace agreement. We have worked determinedly with our French counterparts to establish a coalition of the willing, which now consists of 36 countries, and a Multinational Force Ukraine, which is an essential pillar of the credible security guarantees required to deter Putin from coming back for more territory in the future.

It has been the position of this Government from the outset that Ukraine’s voice must be at the heart of any peace talks. That is what we have worked to achieve—not just because that is what our values and our international norms and laws dictate, but because practically, Ukraine is too militarily powerful and too determined to defend its sovereignty for peace to be built over the country’s head.

While a pattern has emerged of Russia claiming battlefield successes at opportune political moments, its claims have been exposed as disinformation time and time again. Russia has suffered over 1 million casualties to gain around 1% of Ukrainian territory since the stabilisation of the frontline in 2022. In more than a year of fighting for the comparatively small city of Pokrovsk, Russia has advanced only 15 km—equivalent to 40 metres a day—and although Putin claimed to have finally taken that city ahead of the recent visit of the American negotiating team, it is our defence intelligence’s assessment that pockets of Ukrainian resistance continue to operate there. Right across the frontline, it is Ukraine’s continued strength on the battlefield that gives it strength at the negotiating table, so we will continue to work with our allies to boost that strength and secure the credible security guarantees needed to underpin a just and lasting peace.

As we approach the fifth year of fighting since Russia’s full-scale invasion, this Government are in no doubt that the frontline of UK and European security continues to run through Ukraine. Twelve months ago, there was no clear route to ending the war; today, the US-initiated peace process represents the brightest path towards securing a just and lasting peace that we have seen since the start of the full-scale invasion. To support those diplomatic efforts, we are accelerating joint work with the US on security guarantees. The Defence Secretary directed military chiefs this week to review and update the Multinational Force Ukraine military plans, so that we are ready to deploy when peace comes. That includes revising and raising readiness levels as we continue to work with allies to maximise pressure on Putin’s war machine, to strengthen Ukraine’s hand on the battlefield and to grow its defence industrial base.

Russia’s economy is getting weaker: military spending is around 40% of the budget. Its VAT is rising and its social spending is falling. We will continue to work with our allies to tighten the screw on the Russian economy, to provide more support for Ukraine and to lay the foundations for the just and lasting peace that the Ukrainian people so deserve and want. With increasing grey-zone attacks across Europe, Ukraine’s security remains our security. I commend that approach, and this statement, to the House.

[Madam Deputy Speaker (Judith Cummins)]

I call the shadow Minister.

--- Later in debate ---

[Luke Pollard]

I wish a merry Christmas to the right hon. Gentleman. First, I thank him for his support for the investment that the UK is making in Ukrainian air defences; we are spending £4.5 billion on Ukraine this year—the most that we have ever spent as a country. It is a really important statement, and the more powerful because it is backed on a cross-party basis. I appreciate his comments about Ukraine in that respect. It is absolutely right that we support Ukraine in shooting down Russian drones and missiles that are targeting civilians in particular, as well as protecting its frontline.

It is important that we value our alliances, and we continue to do so. We have a NATO-first defence policy, as set out in the strategic defence review. We are very clear about our priority focus on the Euro-Atlantic, securing our backyard. That includes working more closely and deeply with our European friends, our NATO allies, our Joint Expeditionary Force partners and Ukraine, as well as supporting and continuing to work with our friends in the United States.

When it comes to the DIP, I believe the right hon. Gentleman was at Defence questions on Monday and will have heard the Defence Secretary say very clearly that he is working flat out between now and the end of the year to finalise it. He continues to do so. On industry, we will continue to sign contracts. We have signed over 1,000 contracts since the general election, 83% of which have gone to British companies. We will continue to back British defence companies. We continue to sign those contracts. I recognise the spirit in which the right hon. Gentleman asked for clarity on behalf of industry. We are working with our industrial partners to do that. Indeed, there are many contracts that his Government chose not to sign, which we are still working our way through to make sure that we can deliver the updated defence posture that the strategic defence review set out so clearly.

As the right hon. Gentleman will know, we are a Government who have delivered a plan to increase defence spending: there was £5 billion extra in our Budget this year, and it will reach 2.5% of our GDP by April 2027—three years earlier than anyone projected. We will achieve 3% in the next Parliament. We have made a commitment alongside our NATO allies for 3.5% on defence, as part of 5% on national security by 2035.

The right hon. Gentleman will also remember from when he was a Defence Minister—it was a wee while ago—that it is very normal to do business-as-usual budget management in-year. We are fixing the mess that his party left us in defence, but for the purpose of this statement I do not wish to make party political jibes. I wish to reinforce the cross-party support that this House can show for our friends in Ukraine. We will continue to do that, and I look forward to that further support being on show next year and every year afterwards.

[Madam Deputy Speaker]

I call the Chair of the Defence Committee.

[Mr Tanmanjeet Singh Dhesi (Slough) (Lab)]

I thank the Minister for advance sight of his statement. The final letter from the late Lance Corporal George Hooley is moving, poignant and inspirational. We will remember him.

The Defence Committee wholeheartedly supports the Government’s steadfast support for Ukraine, their approach to a just and lasting peace, and the robust security guarantees for our Ukrainian friends. Putin and Russia have illegally invaded a sovereign European nation and should pay the cost, rather than the lion’s share of the burden falling on my Slough constituents and the British taxpayer. Rather than prevaricating, when will the Government and their European allies finally use the frozen Russian assets to punish Putin and properly support our Ukrainian friends?