Lord Swire
Main Page: Lord Swire (Conservative - Life peer)Ukraine: Forcible Removal of Children
Lord Swire Excerpts(1 day, 6 hours ago)
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Baroness Chapman of Darlington (Lab)
First, I pay tribute to the right reverend Prelate for his knowledge and experience and the care and consideration that he brings to this and other matters. I know that he will soon retire from this House, although I hope not entirely from these issues. He is absolutely right to remind us that the removal of children, horrendous as it is, was not just to use children as a pawn in this conflict; it is absolutely about diminishing the identity of Ukraine and removing all vestiges of its own sovereignty. For so many reasons, we will continue to work to see these children returned. I look forward to continuing to work with the right reverend Prelate in future on these and many other issues.
Lord Swire (Con)
Last week, some of us were privileged to hear the testimony of two former Ukrainian prisoners of the Russians here in this House—we listened to their harrowing testimony. Can the Minister reassure us that in any peace deal articulated by the Americans or with the EU, the egregious infringement and abuse of human rights through torture, false imprisonment and everything that goes with it will not be lost in any settlement, and people will be pursued, if necessary to the International Criminal Court?
Baroness Chapman of Darlington (Lab)
Accountability and responsibility for breaches of international humanitarian law and atrocities matter a great deal to this Government, and we will not compromise on that in any situation. As for what this agreement may finally look like, I hope that there is one because we all want to see a lasting peace sustained. The negotiations at the moment are between the US and Ukraine, with the support of the United Kingdom and others, but what matters more than anything, in order to get that sustainable peace, is to hear the voices of the Ukrainians and for the peace agreement, whatever it might look like, to be something that the Ukrainians can accept.