Will the First Minister make a statement on the impact of the Russian invasion of Ukraine on Welsh citizens and businesses? (EQ0009)

Llywydd, this is the first time the Senedd has met since the unprovoked attack on the sovereign and independent people of Ukraine. And on this, our national day, the Welsh flag and the Ukrainian flag are flying together over the Welsh Government building in the civic centre of our capital city. [Applause.] And we do that, Llywydd, because the people of Wales are appalled at the invasion of Ukraine, and, as a nation of sanctuary, we will do everything we can to support the Ukrainian people. Wales is open to provide a welcome and safety to those fleeing war and persecution. 

Diolch yn fawr, Prif Weinidog, for that answer. Can I also take the opportunity to thank the Llywydd, and extend my thanks to the Llywydd, for allowing us to have this emergency question tabled for this afternoon before First Minister's questions? And I am sure I speak on behalf of the Chamber—it's great to see a full Chamber—when I say that our thoughts are very much with the people of Ukraine, and those who have family in Ukraine, including our good friend, the Welsh Government's Counsel General, Mick Antoniw. [Applause.] 

Llywydd, the unprovoked invasion of Ukraine, and the suffering that it has brought with it, is clearly a war crime. And Putin is a war criminal. Llywydd, I repeat that for the record in this Senedd—Putin is a war criminal. With so many being forced from their homes, fleeing for their lives, it is important that Wales and the rest of the United Kingdom play a leading role in welcoming those seeking sanctuary. 

First Minister, can I ask you what conversations you have had with your UK counterparts about removing the barriers to those seeking sanctuary? Can I ask you what additional support the Welsh Government can put in place for those that arrive from Ukraine? And, finally, First Minister, what support can be provided to Ukrainians in Wales who are watching these scenes unfold and dealing with the accompanying trauma? Diolch yn fawr. 

Llywydd, I thank Jack Sargeant for those additional questions. I've had a series of opportunities to speak with UK Ministers and the First Minister of Scotland and the Permanent Secretary of Northern Ireland. We last met on Friday afternoon of last week, and on Sunday evening, and with more meetings planned for this week. The meetings this week do need to focus on the part that the United Kingdom can play, and Wales can play within it, in offering sanctuary to those who are fleeing from the awful scenes we see in Ukraine. I see the Prime Minister has made further welcome announcements today, but there's more that can and should be done, and I'm pleased that there are open channels of communication between the four nations of the United Kingdom to work together on that agenda. 

As far as what the Welsh Government is able to do, Llywydd, a written statement has been released shortly before this afternoon's proceedings began. It sets out £4 million that the Welsh Government has been able to make available to assist with the humanitarian crisis in Ukraine, it sets out the actions we are taking within the Welsh health service to identify medical supplies and equipment that we could make available as part of the international effort, and it sets out the actions that we want to take at home. We have hundreds of people from Ukraine living in Wales with friends and family now on the front line, and there is work that we can do here to make sure that they know that, in Wales, they have the support of the whole of our nation as they face those deeply troubling days ahead.  

I'm grateful to the Member for Alyn and Deeside for tabling this topical question. Putin's Russia is a bully, and all bullies must be stood up to. Ukrainian sovereignty has been violated and innocent civilians are being killed by Putin's desire for conflict. This is a dark period in Europe's history. We must all work to preserve the freedom, democracy and sovereignty of Ukraine, and we stand united with President Zelenskyy, the Verkhovna Rada and the people of Ukraine. Over a number of years, since peace returned to our continent, the west had become a sleeping giant, a giant that would awake when existentially challenged. The response we are seeing from a united, determined and compassionate west has shown that this sleeping giant has awoken in the wake of the invasion of Ukraine, and I am proud that the United Kingdom has been the vanguard in the global response in this crisis. 

Prif Weinidog, as the grandchild of post world war two immigration, when my grandfather, a German prisoner of war, and my grandmother, a German nurse, made Pembrokeshire their home, I believe it is absolutely incumbent that we keep a welcome in the hillside for those Ukrainians who take refuge here in Wales until they feel it is safe for them to return to their homeland. With that, can you outline what immediate support you are offering to charities and other third sector organisations here in Wales as they prepare to offer that much needed support to those who have fled the destruction of Vladimir Putin's war on the democratic, sovereign state of Ukraine? Diolch.  

Llywydd, my predecessor, Carwyn Jones, used to say often when he was First Minister that you don't have to go back very far in the histories of any one of us here in Wales to find that we'd arrived in Wales from some other part of the globe, and, in that sense, our connections with one another and, through that, with people elsewhere in the world are enduring and strong. I thank the Member for what he said on that.

Tomorrow, my colleagues Jane Hutt and Rebecca Evans will meet with the Welsh Local Government Association, the Wales Council for Voluntary Action and other third sector organisations to make sure that we are working together, planning together, pooling our resources to do everything we can to be in the best position possible to offer help and sanctuary to those people who may come to this country, maybe temporarily as they will hope, in order to re-establish their lives before they are able to return to the homeland from which they have been forced to flee. The Welsh Government will take a lead in that, in bringing people round that table together, and then we'll do whatever we can to support the efforts that others will want to make as well, because, as I think the question implied, this will be an effort that reaches far beyond Government and deep into civil society here in Wales. 

Thank you for bringing this urgent question today, and I would like to echo 'Putin is a war criminal'. We are agreed on that. I would also like to state today that Plaid Cymru stands in complete solidarity with the people of Ukraine. We condemn unreservedly the Russian state's illegal invasion of Ukraine, and we reject Russia's assertion that the invasion is in any way a response to western provocation. We believe Russia's war aims are nothing less than the total destruction of Ukraine both as a sovereign nation and as a distinct national identity, and, as such, the invasion represents an attempt at genocide against the Ukrainian nation. It is an assault not just on Ukraine's independence and its right to exist, but on the right of nations' self-determination everywhere, as a central principle in international law. And despite some movement from the UK Government today, we would once again like to put on record that we are urging the UK Government to waive visa rules for all Ukrainian refugees—[Applause.]—a rule that should be applied generally to others fleeing war.

This morning, we saw a huge convoy of Russian military vehicles advancing on Kyiv, and, minute by minute, we are all receiving concerning updates from all parts of Ukraine. Last night's demonstration outside of the Senedd was a clear indication of our solidarity with the Ukrainians. And though messages of support are important, you are completely right, Llywydd, that this is the time—

—to do the big things, not the little things.

The Scottish Government this week confirmed that it would provide an initial £4 million in humanitarian aid to Ukraine, as well as medical supplies, as part of the global humanitarian effort. You've hinted at this, but I would like to seek assurances from you, First Minister, in terms of what is going to be our response here in Wales. Will you also commit that we will provide financial aid and medical supplies, as a matter of urgency? And, following meetings tomorrow, can we please have that urgent update, because things are needed now? We've seen that request—it's not a matter of waiting; that direct aid is needed now. The Scottish Government has placed on record what it will do. Will the Welsh Government also commit to doing that today?

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.

At the weekend, along with Rebecca Evans, I attended and spoke at a rally in Mumbles in support of Ukraine. Swansea had a large Ukrainian population immediately following the second world war, and until the end of the last century there was a Ukrainian club in Morriston. Does the First Minister share my concern that, despite a serious breach of doping rules, Russian athletes were allowed to compete in the summer and winter Olympics as the Russian Olympic Committee? Will the First Minister join with me in demanding Wimbledon does not allow any Russian tennis players to compete, and that no Russian team, however badged, should be allowed to compete in any international sport tournament?

Llywydd, can I say how proud I was to see what the Welsh football association, the FAW, had decided to do earlier this week, without cover from FIFA in doing so? A brave act by a small federation, but one which I think was entirely in line with the sentiments—[Applause.]—entirely in line with the sentiments expressed by Mike there. I congratulate him and Rebecca Evans on being part of that event in Swansea. It was a privilege to be here on the steps of the Senedd last night with other colleagues at another vigil to mark our reaction to events in Ukraine.

Actions are not yet exhausted, as Mike Hedges suggested. There are further measures that can and should be taken to bring it home to those people who are in charge of these decisions in Russia. It's very important, Llywydd, isn't it, that we continue to make a distinction between the actions of President Putin and those who surround him and the interests of ordinary people living in Russia. But, we still have to be prepared to take action to bring home to them that there are consequences from what has taken place, and consequences in the sporting field often make their way into the consciousness of people where other sanctions may not seem to have such a direct impact. So, I associate myself with what Mike Hedges has said in his contribution this afternoon.

Russia is a magnificent country with wonderful people, abominably led into disastrous actions with terrible consequences. But, following the theme of much of the questioning, further to confirmation by the UK Government yesterday that up to 100,000 Ukrainian refugees are already eligible to come to the UK after measures announced in recent weeks giving British nationals and any persons settled in the UK the ability to bring over their immediate Ukrainian family members, the Prime Minister has announced from Poland this morning that the UK is extending the family scheme and could take in 200,000 or more Ukrainian refugees as the UK Government extends its scheme to help those fleeing the invasion of their sovereign, democratic, European country by international war criminal Putin. 

In the written statement we received I think just as you started speaking today on the war in Ukraine, you say you're holding urgent discussions with local authority leaders to ensure that preparations are in place to accept refugees, and obviously you're engaging with the UK Government about the wider, joined-up, UK four-Government approach. How will you ensure that we learn lessons from the Syrian resettlement scheme, where local authorities were asked to volunteer the number of families they could take on board, where some were quick to respond and some were generous in their responses, but some were slow and less generous, stating that they lacked the resources to deliver? So, in addition to the £4 million you've announced to help the people of Ukraine, how will you be supporting the local authorities to enable and encourage them to come forward with a quicker ability to provide support than occurred with the Syrian programme?

I thank the Member for those questions. I welcome the Prime Minister's announcement earlier today, but I think there is more that could and should be done, and I look forward to opportunities to explore that with the UK Government and other colleagues this week. The WLGA has been very receptive to the meeting that will take place tomorrow. We expect the leaders of every local authority to be available at that meeting, and I think there will be a ready reception in all parts of Wales of the need to prepare to do the most we possibly can. And that does involve, as Mark Isherwood has said, learning the lessons from the Syrian experience and the more recent Afghan experience. I think all local authorities in Wales have played an enormously positive part at a time when there are huge demands on their own resources and their own housing services. But, in the face of the unprovoked attack on Ukraine, I think they will want to go further. We will want to support them in that and we will want to work with UK Government colleagues to make sure that the financial and other supports that will be necessary, if we are to ask our local authorities to take on these further responsibilities, that that funding flows through the system and does so in a way that overcomes any anxieties that front-line providers of those services may have, so that they can get on with the job that they want to do without feeling that they have to hesitate before doing so in case they don't have the backing that they will need to do the job we want them to do.

People all over Wales will be horrified about the plight being faced by refugees fleeing Ukraine, and, as has been said, humanitarian routes need to be open not just for people with immediate family in the UK but everyone fleeing war. I'm glad to have heard some of what the work is that you're doing as a Welsh Government, undertaking that with colleagues across the UK, to make sure that safe routes are open to everyone.

But, further to that, First Minister, there have been some reports of non-white people in Ukraine being turned away at the border in Poland, and there have been concerning rhetorics in some media outlets suggesting that we should help, because Ukrainians, as they put it, are 'like us'. Everyone fleeing Ukraine, whatever their race and wherever they're from, needs sanctuary, and the same is true for refugees fleeing other conflicts in Yemen, Syria and elsewhere. Can this point please be stressed by the Welsh Government in any urgent discussions that you are holding with the Home Office?

Of course, Llywydd. Those of us who were able to be here last night will have heard a very powerful speech from the leader of the Welsh Trades Union Congress, Shavanah Taj, who directly made the points that Delyth Jewell has made this afternoon, that to distinguish between one group of refugees and another on the basis of the colour of their skin, or the heritage that they happen to draw on, is entirely not what we mean by Wales being a nation of sanctuary. We have been very pleased to welcome people from Syria, very pleased to welcome families from Afghanistan, and we will be very pleased to welcome refugees who need to come to Wales from Ukraine. But we do so on the basis of the need that they have, not the nature of their own ethnicity.

Alun Davies.

I'm grateful, Presiding Officer; I'm grateful to you for allowing this question this afternoon. I think many of us will have seen the footage coming out of Ukraine last night of doctors and paramedics trying to save the life of a six-year-old girl—a girl who was simply going about her daily life and was murdered by the Russian military. You don't have indiscriminate attacks without casualties. You don't have indiscriminate targeting of civilian areas and people's homes without killing people. And one of the most profound things I think we've all seen has been the impact of war on people in Ukraine, people who are entirely innocent, who have no argument with the people of Russia and have no argument with people elsewhere. People, like ourselves, who are going about our own daily lives. I don't think there's anyone in this Chamber or elsewhere who didn't feel the pain of watching the footage of that girl last night, and didn't put themselves in the minds and the hearts of her family and her parents as they watched her life slip away. We cannot stand by with this moral outrage taking place and take no action. I'm grateful to the First Minister for his words. I'm grateful to the Welsh Government for the power of their statement that they've made, and the power of the argument that they've made to protect the people of Ukraine, as we protected the people, and sought to protect the people, of Afghanistan and Syria before.

First Minister, can you give us an undertaking now that you will continue to work with the other administrations in the United Kingdom to ensure that we have the ability to respond to this humanitarian crisis, that we are able to reach out and put our arms around the people of Ukraine who so need that help today, that we will lead and we will continue to make the power of the moral argument that Putin is committing war crimes? And I welcome Lithuania's move this morning in the International Criminal Court to open an investigation into Vladmir Putin, and I hope that the Welsh Government and the UK Government will support that. And I hope that we'll put aside all our political differences here and elsewhere and put the interests of the people of Ukraine first and ensure that we work together across the whole of this country and the whole of this Chamber to ensure that this country, that Wales, on its national day, extends the hand of friendship and support and love to Ukraine and the people who are suffering so terribly there.

Llywydd, anybody in the Chamber who saw that heartbreaking footage of that child and that child's mother last night cannot possibly not have been moved by it. It is, as Alun Davies said, the ordinary people going about their lives who are always the first victims of a conflict of this sort, and it may not be easy to say it, but I'm sure as well that, somewhere in Russia, there will be a six-year-old child today who will never see her father again, because of the actions that those people responsible for this conflict will have taken. So, it is the ordinary people, isn't it, who are forced into the front line of the consequences of these events. And I give the Member a strong assurance that there have been genuine opportunities over the last 10 days to work with both the UK Government and Governments elsewhere in the United Kingdom, that those meetings have been purposeful, they have been focused on the shared actions that we can take in order to do the most we can to respond to the crisis that we see unfolding, and the Welsh Government certainly will continue to participate in those meetings in that spirit.

Jane Dodds.

Thank you, Llywydd, and thank you to Jack Sergeant for bringing this issue forward this afternoon.

The Welsh Liberal Democrats join with all of the political parties to condemn this war and condemn Putin. We have all heard the upsetting stories of people who are remaining in Ukraine and those desperately fleeing. I hope that the outpouring of support from people across Wales and the United Kingdom signals a shift in public discourse around refugees and migration more broadly. As we've heard, we have a moral duty, alongside our neighbours, to provide sanctuary to all of those fleeing violence and conflict, and these last few days have shown us the dangerous consequences of the United Kingdom Nationality and Borders Bill. I hope that, with humility and reflection, there will be a pause on this Bill. We have heard about the moderate shift today from the UK Government, but it is not enough. Prif Weinidog, can I seek your views on the Nationality and Borders Bill and whether you will continue to make representations to the UK Government on the concerns that have been outlined in the Siambr both today and previously? Diolch yn fawr iawn.

Llywydd, in the final paragraph of my letter to the Prime Minister yesterday, having rehearsed the many areas on which we wish to work together, I go on to say that I have to take the opportunity of the letter again to emphasise that the Welsh Government believes the UK Government should reconsider the proposals in the Nationality and Borders Bill, which we believe would create a two-tier system between asylum seekers depending on their route of entry into the United Kingdom. Jane Dodds is right, Llywydd. There is a wider context beyond the tragic events in Ukraine itself, and we have to find the moment in which we draw those lessons and apply them to a Bill that we in this Chamber have said at every opportunity we could not support because of the way in which it will exacerbate the difficulties that we see around the world, rather than helping to solve them.

And the final comments on Ukraine in this item from our colleague, Mick Antoniw. [Applause.]

Diolch, Llywydd, and thank you for this extraordinary opportunity to say a few words. The first words are really to recognise those brave Russian students and young people who have been demonstrating all across the Russian Federation, because they are the real future of the Russian Federation, rather than those around Putin.

Can I personally thank all of the people of Wales for their messages of support, their solidarity and generosity over the past week, to myself and in particular to the Ukrainian community in Wales? I have communicated these to people in Ukraine who are currently fighting for their freedom and democracy, many of whom I met whilst in Kyiv last week with my colleague Adam Price.

We've all watched with horror the missile and the bombing attacks on civilians and residential buildings and the escalation to the use of ground rockets, thermo bombs and cluster bombs. There can be no doubt that Putin and those in the Russian Government are guilty of crimes against humanity and war crimes. I'm pleased that the International Criminal Court has now begun an investigation into these crimes, and I fully endorse the action now being taken. In the statement of prosecutor Karim A.A. Khan QC on the situation in Ukraine, he says,

'I have decided to proceed with opening an investigation.

'Last Friday, I expressed my increasing concern, echoing those of world leaders and citizens of the world alike, over the events unfolding in Ukraine.

'Today, I wish to announce that I have decided to proceed with opening an investigation into the Situation in Ukraine, as rapidly as possible...

'I have reviewed the Office's conclusions arising from the preliminary examination of the Situation in Ukraine, and have confirmed that there is a reasonable basis to proceed with opening an investigation. In particular, I am satisfied that there is a reasonable basis to believe that both alleged war crimes and crimes against humanity have been committed in Ukraine'.

Llywydd, there are several lines in the Ukrainian national anthem that were sung on the steps here last night. The first line is

'Ще не вмерла України'. 

Perhaps it's closest to 'Yma o hyd'—Ukraine has not died. 

The other line is:

'Душу й тіло ми положим за нашу свободу', that we will lay down our body and our soul for our freedom.

Llywydd, the war in Ukraine has turned into a war against the people of Ukraine, and all our thoughts are with those people who have taken up arms to defend democracy and to fight for freedom, including members of my own family.

Слава Україні! Героям слава!

Thank you. [Applause.]

Thank you to everyone for those valuable contributions and standing in solidarity with the people, the Government and the Parliament of Ukraine.