Ukraine: Humanitarian Assistance

Baroness Suttie Excerpts

Thursday 12th December 2024 Grand Committee

[Baroness Suttie (LD)]

My Lords, it is a pleasure to follow the noble Baroness, Lady Goudie, who feels very passionately about these issues. I too welcome this short debate and congratulate my noble friend Lady Tyler on her powerful and comprehensive opening speech. As my noble friend said, there have been many debates on Ukraine recently but inevitably, and correctly, they have concentrated primarily on defence and geopolitical issues. It is all too easy for war to become about statistics and to lose sight of the life or family behind each statistic that is shattered by the divisions of war.

More than a thousand days since Russia invaded Ukraine, it is welcome that there remains a united front across all mainstream UK political parties in support of Ukraine. There is a general recognition that Ukraine’s future is our future. We should be proud of the support we continue to give to Ukraine, but sometimes it is good to stop and remind ourselves of the impact that war has had on individual lives—the impact of having had your home destroyed by a missile, having no power, heat or light, and the inevitable impact on well-being and mental health.

I refer noble Lords to my register of interests and the various projects I have worked on in Ukraine since 2017, including as an ambassador for the homelessness charity Depaul International and as a trustee of the John Smith Trust. I thank the trust’s fellows in Ukraine for their suggestions and ideas for this speech.

Putin’s illegal invasion of Ukraine in February 2022 changed people’s lives in an instant. Personal plans, careers and studies were all put on hold. In March 2022, just after the Russian invasion began, I went to the Polish border with Ukraine at Przemyśl. Seeing the young children sitting on their little suitcases with their soft toys and pets in cages on their laps, and the elderly looking so disorientated, shocked and bewildered, was an overwhelming experience that I shall never forget.

The first thing that struck me when I saw the crowds outside Przemyśl railway station was that there were only women, children and the elderly. There were no young men; they had had to stay behind to fight. People had had to grab what possessions they could and flee for their lives.

We are now in the third winter of this war and all my Ukrainian friends fear it will be the worst yet. A Ukrainian colleague said to me this week:

“We are a critical juncture—not just for Ukraine, but for the whole democratic world. The war in Ukraine is not merely a regional conflict. It is a battle between democracy and tyranny. Supporting Ukraine’s energy independence, whether through renewable energy solutions, flexible backup systems, alternative routes, or timely repairs to existing infrastructure, is about more than just keeping the lights on. It is about ensuring Ukraine’s survival this winter and securing the future of democracy itself”.


In terms of Ukraine’s energy supplies, the war did not start in 2022, or even in 2014 with the annexation of Crimea. The seeds were sown long before, with Russia’s gas wars in 2005-06. Even then, Putin’s intentions were clear: using energy as a weapon to undermine Ukraine. Building pipelines to bypass Ukraine was just one piece of his broader strategy.

Ukraine’s energy infrastructure system is currently under tremendous strain. Frequent equipment failures, compounded by ongoing missile and drone attacks, threaten its ability to function. These challenges are made worse by the system’s outdated infrastructure and bureaucratic barriers that complicate efforts to secure vital equipment. I appreciate that we have already given considerable financial resource to Ukraine’s energy sector, but I would be grateful if the Minister could say a little more in his concluding remarks about our plans to assist the energy sector this winter.

In particular, I have heard from colleagues in Ukraine that they urgently need critical equipment such as valves, gas cleaning and drying installations, regulating fittings and pipelines. These items, whether unused, decommissioned or donated, are essential to maintaining operations. I am told that bureaucratic obstacles, both on a domestic and international level, are currently slowing down the provision of such equipment. I suspect that, like me, the Minister is not an expert in these matters, but I would be grateful if he or the relevant Minister could reply in more detail about these energy matters in writing.

Supporting Ukraine’s energy sector and gas supply companies is going to be absolutely key this winter. That is something that President Putin is very well aware of, which is precisely why he is so cynically targeting Ukrainian power stations. Nothing saps morale like the icy cold and the dark and, as someone who used to work in Ukraine, I can testify to quite how cold it gets in the winter. I believe the UK can play a vital role in this. Working with our European partners, we must be able to find creative ways around any barriers to ensure uninterrupted heating and electricity supplies for millions of Ukrainian households this coming winter.

According to a recent report commissioned by Depaul—the homelessness charity that has been doing amazing and very important work in Ukraine for many years, but most especially since the war—3.5 million people are now internally displaced and the homes of 2 million households have been destroyed or damaged. Almost a quarter—22%—of people sleeping rough or in emergency shelters are displaced because of the war. The United Nations has described conflict as a “systematic driver” of homelessness.

To be clear, housing and homelessness were already issues in Ukraine before the war. In 2017, I worked on a public health project to raise awareness of tuberculosis in Odesa. During that project, I met many homeless people who were living with TB. Following the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991 and the difficult transition years following independence, Ukraine was already facing many social issues. But the invasion of 2022 has served to make so many of these issues so very much worse in Ukraine. I would be grateful if the Minister could say a little more about specific support that we can give this winter to provide shelters and rebuild homes, as well as support the most vulnerable.

Living in Broadstairs, Kent, I have had the privilege, over the last few years, of being involved with an excellent organisation called Canterbury for Ukraine. Through it, I have been able to get to know many of the Ukrainians currently living and seeking shelter in Kent. I am proud of the warmth of so many people in the UK who have opened their homes to Ukrainian families. Understandably, many Ukrainians have chosen to stay in Ukraine; however difficult the situation becomes, it remains their home.

As other noble Lords have said, I know that the UK has committed to giving £100 million in humanitarian assistance in 2024-25, but can the Minister give reassurances that a sizeable proportion of this funding will be targeted towards measures for long-term programmes for internal resettlement to safer regions in Ukraine? It is also key that we continue to give support to vulnerable groups, including pensioners, low-income families and people with disabilities. This will not only help people survive the winter but lay the groundwork for sustainable social reforms, keeping Ukrainian citizens connected to their country.

My second issue is that of displaced children. More than 2.5 million Ukrainian children are now displaced; many face broken family ties, psychological trauma and limited access to education. Some 30% of the children who left Ukraine with one parent have completely lost contact with the other parent who remains in Ukraine. Some 80% of children whose parents are serving in the armed forces of Ukraine have minimal or no contact with them. The provision of professional psychological rehabilitation centres, training programmes for social workers and comprehensive family law reforms will be vital in the future, and the UK is well placed to give assistance in this regard.

To conclude, I stress once again, as I have in previous debates, that whatever happens geopolitically in the months ahead and as a result of the Trump presidency, it is for Ukraine to decide its own future. All my Ukrainian friends and contacts are hugely grateful for the tremendous support that the UK continues to give, both militarily and through humanitarian support, but in this most difficult of winters ahead it is more important than ever that we keep up this support.