Ukraine

Richard Foord 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.

--- Later in debate ---

[Mr Francois]

My hon. Friend is absolutely right, and it was great to have him as a colleague on that visit. He brought his great knowledge of defence and foreign affairs to our trip. I can also report to the House that my right hon. Friend the Member for Beverley and Holderness exchanged some humorous words with President Zelensky, but they are probably best left to posterity.

We visited at a very difficult time. As well as being in Kyiv, we initially visited Odesa via Moldova, which was under drone and missile attack for part of the time we were there. We visited Chernobyl, which I am pleased to report was not under drone or missile attack, although it was attacked by Russian drones some months ago, incredibly irresponsibly. We then moved on to Kyiv, which again was under bombardment for part of our time there. We had burner phones—I do not think I am giving away any secrets by saying that—and they put an app on them that goes off if there is an air raid warning. When that happens, it is quite sobering, but there is also an all-clear, and with typical Ukrainian humour and defiance, when they play the all-clear, it is followed by the words, “May the Force be with you.”

We had multiple meetings while we were there. As the House knows, people come and go on these delegations, but between us we were there for the best part of a week. We met senior staff from the Office of the President, who gave us an up-to-date briefing on the state of the ceasefire negotiations. We met a dozen Ukrainian MPs from the UK friendship group, and we had an intelligence briefing from the Ukrainian military.

We visited several bombed-out residential apartments, including, I am sad to say, one on Kyiv’s left bank, which has suffered particularly heavily as it is an industrial area and a logistics centre where there is a large amount of working-class housing—a bit like the east end of London in some ways. We visited one apartment where, tragically, 23 innocent people were killed, including several children, in a Russian strike. We think that it was aimed at the railway marshalling yards nearby, but because this was a drone it was not as accurate as a hypersonic missile, and those people were tragically murdered. We also attended a veterans’ rehabilitation centre. As the Secretary of State, who is with us, will know, when I was the Veterans Minister I had a bit to do with that, and I am proud of the fact that we managed to provide the Genium prosthetic for our wounded. We saw the Ukrainian equivalent of a rehabilitation centre, and I understand that this is one area in which Britain has been able to provide some advice and expertise, which was clearly warmly welcomed during our visit.

We attended the official opening of the Ukrainian Parliament, the Rada. I am pleased to report to the House that its Speaker, who is a big man in every sense, acknowledged all the international delegations one by one, but the loudest applause was for the Polish delegation and the British delegation. It was probably impossible to tell between the two, but I think that the MPs in the Rada were under no illusion about who had backed them to the hilt.

It was a difficult time, and at all those different meetings three themes emerged consistently. We were asked to report them to the House, so I will perform that solemn, duty now.

First, our interlocutors were clear about the fact that although we were formally celebrating—or, I should say, commemorating—the fourth anniversary of the full-scale invasion, Ukraine was originally invaded by Russia in 2014. It has been at war with Russia not for four years but for 12, which, to put it into perspective, is longer than the first and the second world wars put together. I think that Ukraine’s resistance for over a decade, in the face of the most brutal attacks from a larger and more powerful neighbour, deserves the respect and admiration of every single Member of this House and every single citizen in this country. The Ukrainians are fighting for us. They are fighting for the same values: for freedom, democracy, and the right to decide their own destiny. Their fight is our fight. We spoke a great deal to people about morale, and I think it is realistic. There are many in Ukraine who long for peace, for very understandable reasons, but they were all clear on one thing, namely that they would not accept peace at any price. Too much blood has been shed by the youth of Ukraine for them to accept a purely unilateral solution proposed by Russia. That theme emerged many times.

The second theme concerned sanctions. Most of the Ukrainians whom we spoke to in those meetings were understandably keen for an extension of sanctions by the western democracies, not least with regard to frozen Russian assets, a subject that we have debated in the House on numerous occasions. Many Ukrainians feel that now really is the time for the western democracies to bite the bullet and use those $300 billion or so of frozen Russian assets to help Ukraine. However, they also made had a particular point about the shadow fleet, and here I ask for the Minister’s special attention.

The sale of hydrocarbons, whether oil or gas, ultimately props up the Russian economy, which allows Putin to spend about 40% of Russia’s budget on its military and to recruit mercenaries to fight in the Russian armed forces. In some cases, mercenaries are being offered up to $38,000 as a signing-on fee to fight in the Russian armed forces, but according to Ukrainian intelligence officers—they said we could say this—the average life expectancy of those mercenaries is four months.

The Ukrainians would like to see much greater sanctioning of the shadow fleet. The Minister knows that some of those vessels are uninsured, but many are insured and, moreover, many are insured by syndicates at Lloyd’s of London. Surely there is more that we could do to cramp the activities of the shadow fleet by working with Lloyd’s and other insurers to make sure that those ships cannot have insurance, which would make it difficult for them to visit at least some of their destination points. I make a particular point of that, because I am trying to do justice to the Ukrainians, who raised this issue with us again and again and again. They are really hard over on this, and I hope the Minister can say something in his summing up.

[Richard Foord]

The insurance industry is largely located in London. The British Government have talked about a maritime services ban, and about a timeline that might bring such insurance to an end in this calendar year. Does the right hon. Gentleman see any reason why a maritime services ban cannot come into effect until the end of this year?

[Mr Francois]

I am not an insurance expert and would not claim to be, but surely there is more that we can do. It is not a state secret that Lloyd’s of London is a world leader in maritime insurance, and surely there is more that can be done here. We promised—all of us—that we would relay this back to the House. Minister, over to you.

--- Later in debate ---

[Stephen Doughty]

The right hon. Gentleman makes an important point, on which our trade envoy, my hon. Friend the Member for Leeds Central and Headingley (Alex Sobel), is doing excellent work. We are looking at all opportunities to engage UK businesses in a range of sectors. Again, it is a two-way process. Our partnership with Ukraine is for 100 years. This is not just about the support that we offer Ukraine now; it is about the opportunities for the future in a peaceful, secure and sovereign Ukraine. I think the UK and Ukraine working together are going to be a powerful force in the world to come.

Ukrainians in the UK were mentioned on a number of occasions. We are very proud of what people across this country have done to support Ukrainians. Over 300,000 Ukrainians and their families have been supported. Ukrainians living in the UK can now apply to stay for an additional 18 months, and as of yesterday Ukrainians wishing to extend their stay in the UK will be able to apply up to 90 days before their current permission expires, which is treble the current 28 days. We will continue to listen to Ukrainian communities and give families a greater sense of security about their future.

Members asked questions about the multinational force. I am not, for obvious reasons, going to get into details on this, because it would be irresponsible to share operational details prematurely, but we are very clear that this will be a visible and tangible international support for Ukraine’s return to peace. It will regenerate Ukraine’s land forces and establish and maintain safe skies, safe seas and strong borders. It is not just about the contribution we will make directly to that, which the Defence Secretary and Prime Minister have spoken about; it is about training and equipping Ukraine’s armed forces, as we have done for so long.

We will continue to support a range of other projects in humanitarian energy stabilisation, reform, recovery and reconstruction. We are working through British International Investment, and we are using every channel, every sinew and every way that we can to stand with Ukraine—not just through words but in practical terms.

Many very helpful points were made by Members today. We will continue to offer briefings to Members of the House and, as ever, my door remains open for those who have specific concerns. My hon. Friend the Member for Hemel Hempstead (David Taylor) and others raised some particular concerns that I am happy to take away. I am also happy to offer briefings with officials on the specific technical topics that were raised.

[Richard Foord]

My specific concern is about the maritime services ban for the transport of Russian liquefied natural gas. It was announced by the Foreign Secretary last November, but it is not due to come into effect until the end of this calendar year. It is looking like it will take more than a whole year. Can the Minister explain why it needs to take so long?

[Stephen Doughty]

As I set out a moment ago, it is our intention to introduce the ban, and we are working at pace. The hon. Member will appreciate that these are extremely complicated measures, both legally and in terms of the procedures that need to be in place. It also requires a substantial amount of international co-ordination to have effect and to not have loopholes. We have to work very closely with other partners on this.

I can assure the hon. Member that I am personally working very hard to accelerate the ban as fast as we can. We need to do everything we can to choke off the revenues that are fuelling the war machine, and it is a personal mission of mine to do that. I am very happy to give him further briefings on this matter outside the Chamber.

Let me conclude by reiterating that Ukraine’s victory is essential not only for Ukraine but for Europe’s future and the future of this country. A secure, independent Ukraine strengthens Europe and Britain. It reinforces the message we took to the United Nations yesterday that borders cannot be changed by force and that democratic nations will stand together against authoritarian pressure and barbarism. As Ukraine enters its fifth year of this phase of the invasion, we will continue alongside international partners to sustain the support that Ukraine needs today.

I pay tribute to the incredible work of our teams at the Ministry of Defence and the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office, particularly the team in Kyiv and at our new office in Lviv, and the country-based staff. They are enduring the same as Ukrainians in terms of blackouts, attacks and winter conditions, yet they do their work with dedication and absolute professionalism. The spirit that is exemplified in this House today is being exemplified on the ground by them. I am delighted that Members here have been able to meet them.

I end by again paying tribute to the Ukrainian people. I say to those fighting on the frontlines, to the families that are separated and to the civilians who are enduring hardship with extraordinary dignity, we will continue to stand with you and support you every step of the way, because we know that your struggle is a reminder of what is at stake: freedom, self-determination and a rules-based order that protects us all. We will stand with Ukraine today, tomorrow and for as long as it takes. Slava Ukraini.