Labour MP Calls For "Sense Of Urgency" In Stepping Up Support For Ukraine
Emergency workers searched for survivors at the site of Okhmatdyt children's hospital hit by Russian missiles in July (Alamy)
5 min read
Labour MP Tim Roca has said that support for Ukraine needs to be “stepped up” urgently as the war enters a “new phase”.
Roca joined a group of new Labour MPs on a trip to Ukraine a couple of weeks ago, where they came face-to-face with those directly affected by the war. With winter approaching, Russia is attempting to degrade Ukrainian energy infrastructure and ramping up the number of drone attacks. More than 1,300 Shahed long-range drones were reportedly launched against Ukraine last month.
“It's clear that the war is entering into a new phase,” Roca told PoliticsHome.
“There's an incorrect feeling that this is a long war of attrition and the West tends to use phrases like ‘we'll support Ukraine for as long as it takes’ and it is really important that we're clear that we will support Ukraine for as long as it takes.
“But what we need to emphasise now is actually a sense of urgency. Ukraine doesn't have as deep a pocket as Russia has. Ukraine is a smaller country, both in terms of manpower and economy.
“They're losing many people every day… This is about us highlighting that Ukraine needs to be supported and that support needs to be stepped up.”
Roca said that it was clear that a continued ‘war of attrition’ – a prolonged period of conflict where each side seeks to gradually exhaust the other through small-scale attacks – is “not a good thing for Ukraine”.
“So instead of drip feeding support to Ukraine, we need to give it the weapons and the supplies that it needs now and have the conversations with partners so that they're doing the same thing,” he said.
The group of MPs took part in the Annual Meeting of Yalta European Strategy and visited sites across the country, including the main paediatric children's hospital in Kyiv which was hit by Russian missiles in July.
“That was incredibly moving, seeing the fact that the Russians were targeting a civilian facility, a children's hospital, which is clearly against the rules of war, and seeing children there as well,” Roca said.
They also visited rehabilitation centres where they saw wounded Ukrainian soldiers who had undergone double amputations, as well as a village south of Chernihiv where more than 300 civilians had been held at gunpoint in the basement of a school by Russian soliders in the first few weeks of the 2022 invasion.
"They held them there for several weeks with very little food and water in the darkness,” Roca said.
“One of the survivors was telling us about that experience, about the Russians taking people out at times for execution and the conditions down there. It was a powerful trip, a mixture of meeting people and understanding the conflict and how important UK and wider support is for Ukraine, but then also practically seeing the war itself and the effects it was having on the Ukrainian people.”
Prime Minister Keir Starmer visited Brussels this week with the intention of strengthening cooperation with the European Union on a range of challenges, including the war in Ukraine. He released a joint statement with President of the European Commission Ursula von der Leyen in which they reiterated their “unwavering support for Ukraine’s sovereignty”.
Keir Starmer meeting Ursula von der Leyen in Brussells (Alamy)
In recent weeks, Starmer has been urged by former prime minister Boris Johnson and multiple former defence secretaries to allow Ukraine to use long-range missiles inside Russian territory, despite not having the backing of the US to do so. However, this authorisation has not yet been granted by the UK.
Roca, along with the other MPs on the trip, met with Ukrainian politicians, the Speaker of the Ukrainian Parliament, and officials from the Ukrainian Ministry of Defence. He said the Ukrainians recognised that the UK had tended to be the “first mover” on these decisions in the last couple of years, but that they wanted a decision “sooner rather than later”.
“They're facing a really distinct threat from fly bombs and other missiles, and having the ability to use certain Western weapons on Russian territory to stop those attacks is really important to them,” he said.
“It's clear from the mood music that the UK is leading conversations with allies about allowing weapons to be used beyond Ukraine's 1991 borders, that's really important.
“Where we've made promises already, we need to make sure that we're delivering on those. So support packages that have been announced actually practically have to be delivered, and we need to encourage our allies to do that.”
He added that on the question of whether the UK will seize Russian assets in London and repurpose them to support Ukraine, he understood why the UK was moving “deliberately but delicately”.
Elected this year as Macclesfield’s first ever Labour MP, Roca said it was also important to recognise that thousands of Ukrainian refugees were now residing here, meaning the UK’s ties and obligations to Ukraine should be stronger than ever.
“They're part of our country and they're part of our communities now,” Roca said.
“The week before I travelled to Ukraine, I was at the harvest festival in Macclesfield, and our local Ukrainians were there, leading it in song and in dance.
“When I was going to one of our local schools for A-Level results day, one of our local Ukrainians, who’s been educated here since the war began, collected his A-Level results. He was collecting his results in a new language that he just learned. It was incredible.
“So there is tie now between the UK and Ukraine, which is more than just government to government, with the fact that we've got Ukrainian communities here in Britain.”
Other new Labour MPs Blair McDougall, Gordon McKee, Alan Gemmell, Cat Eccles, Linsey Farnsworth, and Fred Thomas were also among those on the visit.
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