Ukraine Update

Lord Robertson of Port Ellen Excerpts

Tuesday 22nd February 2022 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Evans of Bowes Park (Con)]

Our advice to British nationals is that they should leave Ukraine now. In the event of any military incursion, commercial routes out of Ukraine are likely to be severely disrupted and roads across Ukraine closed. British nationals should leave while commercial travel options remain open, as they are likely to close or become severely limited if an incursion takes place. In addition to any Statements, Questions, debates on statutory instruments and other things we will be doing over the coming weeks—including, no doubt, on Ukraine—we will make time available for a general debate on progress by the middle of March. That will take place in Grand Committee.

[Lord Robertson of Port Ellen (Lab)]

My Lords, I fully support—we should all fully support—the Government and the resolution of the West against this unprovoked attack on an individual nation state. It is outrageous, and we are at a very dangerous point in European history. But I suggest to the Government that we need to do much more to answer some of the disinformation now being put out by the Russians. For example, President Putin tries to pretend that he has had nothing to do with agreements regarding the sovereignty of Ukraine, but in 2002 Vladimir Putin signed the Rome declaration; I actually have his signature with me here today. The declaration said that the participating states

“respect … sovereignty, independence and territorial integrity of all states and their inherent right to choose the means to ensure their own security, the inviolability of borders”.

That was signed up to by Vladimir Putin 20 years ago, and now he seems to pretend that Ukraine does not exist. Surely we need to do much more—the Government need to do much more—to counter some of the lies that are coming out, because the battle of the narratives is going to matter just as much as the battle of the military on the ground.

[Baroness Evans of Bowes Park (Con)]

I entirely agree with the noble Lord. We will continue to expose Russia’s false flag operations, disinformation and cyberattacks. Russia is using disinformation to falsely cast Ukraine as a threat, to justify its aggressive stance. That was one of the reasons why we released intelligence to expose its attempts to install a puppet regime in Kyiv and to fabricate a pretext for invasion. We will absolutely continue to focus on this area and call out Russia where we have evidence and can do so.