Ukraine

Lord Harlech Excerpts

Friday 31st October 2025 Lords Chamber

[Lord Harlech (Con)]

My Lords, I welcome the noble Lord, Lord Barrow, to this House and congratulate him on his outstanding maiden speech. He is a fine addition to this House. I also declare my interest as a serving Army Reserve officer with the 1st Battalion London Guards.

I wish to start my contribution to this debate with two verified first-hand accounts from Ukraine published in the last week, first from a civilian resident of Kyiv:

“I was sitting in the corridor, waiting out the attack, when I heard a powerful explosion. For a moment, I thought our building was collapsing but it turned out it was the one next door. It was terrifying … We just have to endure it”.


The second is from a soldier describing front-line conditions:

“They hit all cars. They just see someone driving by, and they’ll hit absolutely every car”.


These two testimonies encapsulate the human reality of the conflict in Ukraine: ordinary people enduring unimaginable danger and soldiers facing relentless threats. They remind us that behind strategy and policy are lives, homes and hopes under fire. We must take note of three interlinked dimensions: the ongoing war and its human toll; the effectiveness and limits of our sanctions and support response; and the broader strategic implications for the UK, Europe and the rules-based order.

First, the war continues with full intensity. Civilians live under missile, drone and artillery fire; Ukrainian forces struggle with shortages of manpower and matériel. The front line described by that soldier reveals the brutal randomness of front-line danger. The war is not stabilising; rather, it is grindingly persistent.

Secondly, our sanctions and support regimes are vital but not a panacea. The UK and its allies have introduced strong measures: freezes on assets, bans on Russia’s major oil companies, targeting the shadow fleet, and cutting off key revenue sources. Yet, as the Royal United Services Institute has warned in recent commentary, Russia’s war economy remains capable of sustaining brutal operations because of its high sacrifice ratio and strategic diversion of resources.

Moreover, as explained in a recent report from the Henry Jackson Society, sanctions are undermined by persistent global demand for Russian energy and goods, largely from countries not aligned with the sanctions regime or through a complex web of global financial markets and derivative products, far beyond the comprehension of a simple infanteer such as myself. This universe of loopholes means that Moscow retains avenues to continue revenue flows. I add my voice to the calls to the Government from other noble Lords: even if there is persistent obstruction to the utilisation of frozen Russian assets, could not the interest from those assets be diverted to the Ukrainian cause?

Sanctions are crucial; they must be co-ordinated, multilateral and ruthlessly enforced to have the best chance of success. As we have heard from other noble Lords, the implications for the UK and Europe are profound. If Russia can afford to consider a second front against NATO or Europe via grey-zone tactics, our strategic planning must go beyond Ukraine. Russia must not be allowed to open a second front like Ukraine, but it could wage lower-intensity but highly destabilising actions while Europe falters.

To counter this threat and bring about a just peace that favours Ukraine, we must ensure sanctions remain tight and enforceable, crack down on evasion and co-ordinate with non-Western partners to ensure that frozen assets are leveraged effectively to support Ukraine and hold Russia to account. We must prepare for hybrid threats and have a strong deterrence posture —grey-zone warfare is real. The UK must invest in cyber defences, disinformation resilience, strategic communications and strengthening NATO’s readiness.

We must plan for post-war Ukraine and provide security guarantees. Ukraine’s sovereignty must be underpinned by credible guarantees, and the UK must be part of the coalition of the willing that takes long-term responsibility. We must not falter. We must back the resilience of the rules-based order, with strength and resolve. Let us take note, not only in words but in action.