Question to the Ministry of Defence:
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, how many requests have been received by his Department from bordering countries to Ukraine to help with the humanitarian situation; and how many of the 1000 troops who are on readiness have been deployed to help with humanitarian assistance, by location.
The Foreign,Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO) leads on a humanitarian response. No formal requests for humanitarian assistance have been received to date but the humanitarian situation remains fluid and could change quickly.
207 troops, and approximately 40 vehicles, are currently deployed to Poland as the spearhead element of the Humanitarian Assistance Task Force (HATF). Deployed force levels remain under constant review, in consultation with deployed Home Office and FCDO staff.
Together with the approximately 700 HATF personnel held at readiness in the UK, and 100 aligned to other operations in Poland, the HATF provides a prompt and scalable response to any emergent humanitarian tasking.
The UK has stepped up its support to the people of Ukraine again with the announcement of an extra £100 million worth of further humanitarian aid to the country. This brings the UK total offer of support to the Ukraine crisis to around £400 million.