Part of the debate – in the Senedd at 5:08 pm on 9 March 2022.
Thank you, Presiding Officer. I am very proud, to say the least, that it is the Welsh Conservatives that have tabled the motion today, and in particular of the 12 contributors who have put their names forward to speak, and spoken so powerfully and eloquently in today's debate. I've heard on several occasions over two days that words and actions aren't necessarily compatible; well, certainly in a debating chamber like this, the words that have been spoken today have real power and have real meaning, and above all they have the passion and conviction that people generally deplore what is going on in Ukraine.
It is quite right, as Alun Davies pointed out in his contribution, and the Minister closed in her contribution, that this isn't the Russian people's war. This is Putin's war, and he is leading them down a path of total destruction in the way he is executing that war, and the comments that we've heard from Tom Giffard and others in particular who've highlighted—Jayne Bryant as well touched on it—a maternity unit, with children and mothers in it, was destroyed this afternoon, 9 March 2022. Who would have thought that someone would have stood up in this Chamber and talked of a country in Europe where a maternity unit was destroyed in an act of war? That is something I never thought I'd ever have to say in this Chamber, and we will see a continuation of these atrocities unless we face down Putin and we stand on a united platform to make sure we support the Ukrainian people.
I will say to Joyce Watson and others who have highlighted the comments of the individual in Poland, I can understand that individual's frustration and his comments this morning. But I will say that, through the month of January, it was the UK Government that were flying the anti-tank weapons and the anti-aircraft weapons into Ukraine. It was the UK Government that was sending military advisers to train 20,000 Ukrainian soldiers. It is the UK Government that has put £400 million on the table, the biggest donation of humanitarian aid of any country in the world—in the world—not just Europe, not from Asia, not from North America, but the world, and I am damn proud to say that we've done that. I am damn proud to say that, but what I'm not proud to say is the scenes that we've seen with the refugees and the situation in Calais. We can do more, we must do more.