Ukraine

Gerald Howarth Excerpts

Tuesday 13th May 2014 Commons Chamber

[Mr Hague]

I think that is understood in Germany—certainly by their ministerial and political leaders. I had a long discussion with Mr Steinmeier before yesterday’s Foreign Affairs Council, and he fully joined in bringing about the decisions we made at that Council, while Chancellor Merkel expressed Germany’s strong view at her press conference on Saturday. Of course it is understood across Europe that wider sanctions against Russia will have some damaging consequences in Europe. I have said before that if we come to that point, those sanctions will be designed to have the maximum effect on Russia and the minimum effect on European economies—but they would have an effect on Britain, France and Germany. The plans developed for such sanctions include measures to be taken by Germany, and the triggers for them are the ones that I described earlier. We regard Germany as working closely with us on this issue.

[Sir Gerald Howarth (Aldershot) (Con)]

Is it not clear that, far from being deterred by the range of sanctions measures taken by the west, the Russians continue to escalate the crisis with impunity—not least by the deployment to Crimea of some of the most sophisticated weaponry, including, I understand, the latest K-300P Bastion-P mobile anti-ship missile systems? In those circumstances, how on earth can we expect Russia to honour and respect the outcome of the forthcoming presidential elections in Ukraine?

[Mr Hague]

Russia certainly has the involvement I pointed out in my statement, but I also argued that, given the longer-term consequences for Russia, the escalating sanctions, and some of the tragedies that have happened, such as in Odessa, it is in Russia’s interests to co-operate with the initiative that the OSCE chair has launched, which we support.

Russia is capable of adjusting its approach. As others have said, President Putin’s actions will be much more important than his words, but his words last week, when he described the elections as a step forward in Ukraine, represent a substantive change in the Russians’ position. Their previous position was that Yanukovych was still the legitimate President of Ukraine. Clearly, if the elections are a step forward, the Russians have changed their position in accepting a new president rather than the old one. The Russian position has very much created this crisis, but it is not an immutable position.