Ukraine

Mark Pritchard Excerpts

Thursday 19th December 2024 Commons Chamber

[Luke Pollard]

The Government are working hard to ensure that the proceeds of the sale of Chelsea football club reach humanitarian causes in Ukraine as soon as possible. The proceeds are currently frozen in a UK bank account until a new independent foundation is established to manage and distribute the money. Officials continue to hold discussions with Mr Abramovich’s representatives, experts and international partners, and they will double down on efforts to reach a solution. We are fighting every inch of the way to ensure that money from Russian assets goes straight back to supporting Ukrainians.

[Mark Pritchard (The Wrekin) (Con)]

I also welcome the new funding for Ukraine today and the Minister’s statement. With an unstable Government in France, new elections in Germany, foreign influence operations in the recent Romanian presidential election and a new Administration in the United States, what recent discussions has the Minister had with NATO colleagues about how NATO will continue to support Ukraine to the very end, to steel its resolve and work towards the just peace that he referenced?

Briefly, on other NATO members, the Minister will know that Denmark’s policy on defence for Ukraine is to allow Ukraine to grow its own industrial base. That is being supported by Norway and some other Baltic countries. I get the transparency point and support the Government on that, but, to come back to an earlier question, is there any potential of joint ventures to allow Ukraine to grow its own industrial base?

[Luke Pollard]

It is certainly true that in a period of more instability on a political level, our NATO allies value the United Kingdom’s certainty and stability. For that reason, we are pushing forward on our efforts to co-ordinate more NATO activity. The right hon. Gentleman will be aware that NATO has stood up a number of additional capabilities, especially in supporting the training functions that Ukraine desperately needs, and we are supporting those efforts wholeheartedly.

The right hon. Gentleman is absolutely right that one of the Ukrainian objectives is to create more joint ventures to develop and iterate technologies, especially missiles and drone technology. That has the support of the UK Government, so we have been supporting our Ukrainian friends to do so not only in-country, but with UK industry at the same time. How we do that is being worked through. The new treaty that we signed is really beneficial in enabling some of that work to take place. It is certainly true, though, that to keep Ukraine in the fight, we not only need NATO allies to provide more resources, but we need to create the environment in which Ukraine can develop more of its resources in-country to be used on the frontline.