Emergency Question: The Russian Invasion of Ukraine

Part of the debate – in the Senedd at 1:41 pm on 1 March 2022.

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Photo of Mark Drakeford Mark Drakeford Labour 1:41, 1 March 2022

Llywydd, I appreciate, of course, that not all Members will have had an opportunity to see the statement the Welsh Government published earlier this afternoon, but it does confirm that the Welsh Government will make £4 million available for those humanitarian purposes, and it also sets out the actions we are taking within the Welsh NHS. We have now information about the sorts of medical supplies that are most urgently needed, and we're able to match that list against the goods that we may be able to supply.

Can I say to the Member in relation to the point she made about people seeking sanctuary that I wrote to the Prime Minister yesterday? I set out in my letter three simple and practical steps that I believe the UK Government could and should take further to assist people in Ukraine: to make sure that there is a simple, fast, safe and legal route for sanctuary in the United Kingdom; that the requirement for Ukrainians to provide biometric evidence before leaving Ukraine should be lifted—it is simply not practical in any sense to expect people to comply with requirements that in normal times might be sensible, but in entirely abnormal times are simply a barrier to people receiving the help that we would wish them to receive. And I asked the Prime Minister as well to extend the deadline for the European Union settlement scheme family permits—a scheme due to end on 29 March. We know that more than 12,000 Ukrainians have already applied through that route, and there would be more to follow if that deadline could be extended. Llywydd, these are, I think, entirely reasonable and practical measures. They allow the United Kingdom to live up to the ambitions that we have here in Wales to be a nation of sanctuary—sanctuary needed at this moment more than at any time in our own post-war history.