Ukraine

Viscount Stansgate Excerpts

Friday 31st October 2025 Lords Chamber

[Viscount Stansgate (Lab)]

My Lords, I am very glad to take part in this interesting and very worth while debate. I begin by congratulating my noble friend the Minister on his excellent opening speech. Like him, I declare an interest: I am very proud of the fact that my son-in-law is a senior officer serving in the RAF.

I add my congratulations to the noble Lord, Lord Barrow, who lived up to his billing, if I may say so. To say that he brings with him the qualifications to speak in this debate is a classic British understatement. Anyone who has been ambassador to Ukraine, ambassador to Russia and ambassador to the European Union and National Security Adviser deserves the highest respect, and he is a very welcome addition to this House.

This debate is officially listed as being about the situation in Ukraine, and of course that situation is not at all good—but it is quite right that we take the opportunity to debate it today, and I thank the Government for allowing the time to do so. After all, Ukraine’s fight for its security is ours too. I am not sure that anyone could have predicted that this war on our European doorstep would still be going on more than three and a half years since the invasion began, but we can be very proud of the significant amounts of practical, moral and military assistance and the fact that we have welcomed and taken in Ukrainian refugees as well as scientists.

In the short time that I have available, I want to make a few points and ask a few questions of my noble friend the Minister who will be replying. My first point relates to the nature of the threat that we face from the Russian Federation. Recently, in the last couple of weeks, we have heard a lot about whether China is or is not regarded as an enemy state under the outdated Official Secrets Act, but the situation is perhaps clearer when it comes to Russia. The noble Baroness, Lady Manningham-Buller, referred to by our maiden speaker, said in conversation with the Lord Speaker recently that

“we’re already at war with Russia. It’s a different sort of war, but the hostility, the cyber attacks, the physical attacks, intelligence work is extensive”.

Chancellor Merz of Germany has said that Europe is

“not at war … but no longer at peace”

with Russia. When I was a member of the Joint Committee on the National Security Strategy earlier this year, there was no doubt that we regarded Russia as an obvious threat. Can my noble friend characterise for the House precisely what the Government’s official description is of the threat that Russia poses to the UK after nearly three and a half years of war in Ukraine?

My second question relates to the economics of this war and how it has changed. Can I ask my noble friend about the status of the frozen Russian assets? I believe that they amount to about $140 billion. Is there now agreement among the relevant countries that they will now be utilised in the form of loan to provide Ukraine with much-needed financial support? Does my noble friend agree that the use of those frozen assets, together with US sanctions on the two Russian oil companies, might finally begin to put real pressure on President Putin?

My third question relates to the changing nature of modern warfare. Like others, I remember seeing at the beginning of the war that line of tanks on its way towards Kyiv. They did not get very far—and how very dated that now seems, compared to the bleak but savage reality of the conflict now, with its extended great warlike trenches and killing zones, and its grey warfare. I am no expert and I do not pretend to be, but it is obvious to me that this has developed into the first truly drone war in history. The fact is that drones are less costly to lose, easier to replace and sustain, and lower costs mean that you can buy more of them. But this is a war that is also being fought on the basis of intelligence and data, and future wars will be won less by bullets and more by data. Can my noble friend the Minister say what lessons the Government have learned from this terrible conflict and whether she can reassure the House that they are carefully and comprehensively taking into account these lessons when applied to the strategic defence review, which we have already debated?

Next, I ask my noble friend what she can say about the coalition of the willing and its recent meeting. We have to deal with the destabilising unpredictability of the US president, whose approach to this war has zigzagged all over the place, but can my noble friend reassure the House that despite this, the Government’s expectation is that the United States will continue to help Ukraine in vital areas such as targeting and intelligence information?

Now I come to the possibility of a ceasefire, or an “armed pause”, as it was put earlier in this debate. We know that Russia has recently rejected the idea of a ceasefire, doubtless because President Putin thinks that he still holds the advantage in the long run, despite terrible losses. What is the Government’s attitude to a possible ceasefire plan? Were President Trump to finally walk away from the Ukraine war, does my noble friend agree that it is not unimportant that he does not blame Ukraine or the West for that impasse?

My final point is this. I belong to the generation born after the war, only too conscious of the sacrifice made by the generation above me that enabled most of the West to live in relative peace for my lifetime. Given the changing geopolitical landscape of the world in which we now live, can my noble friend say something about the intention of the Government to educate the public about the nature of the threats we face, whether they are hybrid warfare, cyber warfare or attacks on our critical national infrastructure, and how we should prepare for them? My noble friend Lord Robertson of Port Ellen has spoken frankly about the need for public education, but there are new generations of UK citizens to whom the serious possibility of conflict or war has never occurred. There is a balance to be struck between causing alarm and raising awareness, but perhaps my noble friend can address this issue in her final remarks.

My time is up, but I hope it will never be up for Ukraine.