Ukraine

Lord Ricketts Excerpts

Friday 31st October 2025 Lords Chamber

[Lord Ricketts (CB)]

My Lords, I too am much looking forward to the maiden speech of my friend and long-time colleague, the noble Lord, Lord Barrow. The House is about to discover that, unlike the present speaker, the noble Lord really knows what he is talking about, having been ambassador in Ukraine and Russia, as well as many other senior posts.

I too warmly welcome the fact that this Government are showing staunch support for Ukraine, in seamless continuity with the approach of the previous Government. That bipartisanship in politics is really important in giving Britain the authority to lead the European response to Russia’s aggression in Ukraine, which is now approaching its fourth anniversary. The coalition of the willing that is taking shape under British leadership is growing, in my view, into the European pillar of NATO, which I think could be of long-term strategic significance, given the evolution of the US approach to Europe.

It is playing a crucial role in co-ordinating support for Ukraine but also in planning, as the Minister said, for the post-conflict period. We are seeing in Gaza the risks of getting to a ceasefire without arrangements in place to avoid a security vacuum. Ukraine is of course different, but it is encouraging that plans are in place for a multinational force Ukraine. Of course, we will want to scrutinise at the right time the tasks and rules of engagement of the force.

In the meantime, we have to get to a ceasefire. The Prime Minister deserves great credit for his deft handling of President Trump. He and other European leaders have repeatedly shown they can be very effective in countering Putin’s efforts to tempt Trump into selling out Ukraine’s vital interests. For all President Trump’s efforts to get a ceasefire deal, it is crystal clear that Putin does not want one; he thinks he is still winning, as many noble Lords have said. He thinks that we in Europe will tire, and that we will find that he has driven a wedge between us and the United States. So my main point this morning is that the only way to get Putin to accept a ceasefire is to ratchet up the pressure on Russia to the point where he feels his grip on power is in jeopardy.

We have collectively done a lot already on weapons deliveries and on sanctions. But, as the noble and gallant Lord, Lord Houghton, said, we have always been too slow in giving Ukraine the weapons it really needs. We have got to be bolder. We have to give Ukraine the long-range weapons that it is calling for, including persuading President Trump to send Tomahawks. Could the Minister tell us when the Government expect to secure agreement with the EU on the SAFE arrangement, which would allow British defence industries to co-operate across Europe?

On sanctions, we should finalise as soon as possible the deal to use frozen Russian assets to underwrite a loan for Ukraine, of a size that will give it economic security for several years. The Government have said that the £25 billion or so in the UK will be part of that deal. I hope that the £2.5 billion that Abramovich received for the forced sale of Chelsea football club will be there before long as well. The main block, of course, is in Belgium, but this has dragged on too long. We need now to get this settled and get the money to Ukraine.

Yes, we should intensify our sanctions on Russia—again, we have done a lot. President Trump has suggested that the extra 25% tariff he put on India led Modi to say that the Indians would reduce their purchases of Russian oil. But then we see in the FT that there is a large-scale sanctions evasion operation apparently linked to ArcelorMittal. I hope we too are pressing the Indians to reduce sanctions evasion. Are we looking for other ways of applying decisive pressure to Russia economically: for example, against Russia’s central bank?

I have one final thought, adding to what other noble Lords have said. Given all the pressures on public spending, we need to take every opportunity outside this Chamber to emphasise that our partnership with Ukraine is not just about sending money and giving development aid; it provides huge benefits for this country. The Ukrainians are indeed fighting and dying for our security. They are more skilled than anyone in the world at countering Russian cyberattacks. They are world leaders in drone technology and tactics. This is transforming not just the battlefield in Ukraine but every future conflict.

We have an enormous amount to learn from Ukraine’s hard-won experience, and the agreement that Ukraine will share data for the benefit of British defence industries is excellent news. I hope that that can be widely available across the defence industry because, unless new defence equipment is taking account of how warfare now works in Ukraine, it is going to be obsolete before it comes off the production line.

In short, however the war in Ukraine finally ends, we will share a continent with a hostile Russia for the foreseeable future, and a strong partnership with a free Ukraine is in our long-term national security interest.