Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between John Healey and Will Forster

Monday 8th September 2025 Commons Chamber

[John Healey]

I agree with my hon. Friend, and she is right that it was the biggest drone attack in the past three and a half years since Putin’s illegal invasion. These air attacks are directed at civilian areas with civilian targets. I saw for myself this week the damage that brings when I stood outside the bombed-out building of the British Council in Kyiv, and I saw the determination of men and women—military and civilians alike—in their defiance to keep fighting in the face of Putin’s illegal invasion.

[Mr Will Forster (Woking) (LD)]

Will the Secretary of State confirm how this country and our allies will support Ukraine to defend its airspace from Russian aggression? For example, will we lend it our Typhoons or will we participate in the cross-national F-16 fighter programme, despite the fact that we do not have F-16s?

[John Healey]

We have worked closely with Ukraine to develop new weapons systems to supply the air defence missiles it requires. While-ever Ukraine is fighting Putin’s invasion, we will stand alongside it and we will provide whatever military aid we can. Beyond that, for when we can reach a negotiated peace, we have been leading work to prepare a multinational force willing to stand with Ukraine in the peace and to secure that peace for the long term so that Russia never again invades that country.

Ukraine Update

Debate between John Healey and Will Forster

Tuesday 22nd April 2025 Commons Chamber

[John Healey]

In the high politics of international peace negotiations, and in the brutal drama and killing of the battlefield, it is often easy to overlook the fact that our ability as a Government, and our ability as a nation, to offer Ukraine such support depends on the well of support of the British people. My hon. Friend is right that this battle for the future of Ukraine and the huge courage that Ukrainian men and women—military and civilian alike—are showing in resisting Putin’s invasion matters to us in the UK. It matters not just because the defence of the UK and Europe starts in Ukraine; it also matters to the British people who opened their homes to refugee Ukrainians over three years ago when Putin invaded. It matters to people in this country because they recognise that the Ukrainians are fighting for what we also hold dear: the right to elect their own Government and to determine their own future as a country, and to do that without the menace of a big power and a dictator like Putin over their shoulder.

[Mr Will Forster (Woking) (LD)]

The Defence Secretary has acknowledged MPs from across the House who have visited Ukraine. I wanted to briefly share my experience. When I visited a Ukrainian hospital, I met a man who was suffering from a chemical weapons attack, and doctors were struggling to treat him because they did not know what chemical weapons had been used. Can the Secretary of State please confirm what monitoring the MOD does of chemical weapons and other war crimes in Ukraine, and how is the UK raising that with international partners?

[John Healey]

We would abhor any use of chemical weapons. I am not aware of those reports, but I will check them out and write to the hon. Gentleman. He rightly points to the very sharpest end of this Ukrainian fight, which is those injured servicemen and women in Ukrainian hospitals. I am pleased to say that, from almost the first month, the UK Government were putting in place UK military medical support for the Ukrainian system. We stepped that up recently, three months ago, when I announced an increase in support and funding for it. It is an important part of the contribution we can make to keeping Ukraine in this fight.