Last week marked two years since Putin’s barbaric assault on Ukraine.
Ukraine can and must win this war. We have all seen the immense bravery of the Ukrainian people, defending their homes and families and their determination that they and their country should live free.
Russia has galvanised its economy and sacrificed tens of thousands of its people to crush an independent sovereign neighbour. It cannot be allowed to prevail: the implications of them doing so would be very grave, not only those they threaten but the international order itself as other would-be aggressors watch and wait.
As Chair of the Defence Select Committee, I met this week parliamentarians from Finland and Sweden. Both countries, for decades non-aligned, who felt Putin’s aggression left them no choice but to join NATO.
I also had the pleasure of meeting the Estonian Ambassador, the representative of a country that shares its Independence Day with the date of Russia’s 2022 invasion. Estonia knows only too well what occupation looks like and is grateful for the presence on its border of UK troops designed to deter Russian adventurism.
The Ukrainian people ask for nothing more than to live in peace, in the same way that families up and down the UK can do. We cannot allow Putin to succeed in denying this to the people of Ukraine not least due to the implications of military force being seen by Russia (and others) as a successful means of advancing national objectives. Accordingly, I welcomed this week the Government’s announcement of additional support for Ukraine.
The UK and our European peers are still having to get over the impact of Covid there is so much in which we want to invest. However we can never take for granted the peace that we enjoy. The UK troops in the Baltic, the Royal Navy, Army and RAF personnel currently on exercise alongside their NATO allies, the submariners spending months at sea maintaining our ultimate deterrent, all have a job to do, they do it every day and do it well. As General Omar Bradley said, “peace is our goal, but preparedness is the price we must pay”.