Ukraine

Mark Sewards Excerpts
Wednesday 15th October 2025

(1 day, 21 hours ago)

Commons Chamber
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Yvette Cooper Portrait Yvette Cooper
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As the hon. Lady will know, we continue to support international law and international court processes. She is right to say that Russia ultimately needs to pay the price and to be held accountable for the damage it is doing. I hope she also agrees that Kyiv is an incredibly beautiful city, where many people are going about their daily lives undeterred, determined not to let Russia win.

Mark Sewards Portrait Mark Sewards (Leeds South West and Morley) (Lab)
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The politicians, civilians and soldiers I spoke to last month in Kyiv were unambiguous when asked what was the best thing the UK could do to help them win the war. The hundreds of billions of dollars of frozen Russian assets that they currently cannot deploy could help them bolster their military and swing the war decisively in their favour. On their behalf, will the Foreign Secretary use every power available to her to unlock those assets and put them in the service of the people of Ukraine?

Yvette Cooper Portrait Yvette Cooper
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I welcome my hon. Friend’s support for unlocking Russian sovereign assets. The Chancellor is raising that issue in Washington with international partners as I speak.