I thank the Conservative party for tabling this debate; it's very timely, of course, because next week we will be marking the first anniversary of this invasion. I think, at a time when people seek to create divisions in politics, it's good to have the opportunity to come together as well. I was listening to Mark Isherwood opening the debate, and I noticed there were two words he used that are peppered in my speech as well, in my notes here: the first is 'brutality' and the second is 'generosity'.

When you see an international event such as the invasion of Ukraine, you see brutality at its most raw, and we saw this time last year the build-up of forces around Ukraine and the lies of Putin in claiming that they weren't planning an invasion of that country. Since then, we've certainly seen the commissioning of war crimes by Vladimir Putin, and he needs to be held to account for the actions of his soldiers over this last year.

But we've also seen him practise brutal repression in his own country, in Russia. I read yesterday of the story of a student who had mentioned on her Instagram that she opposed the war in Ukraine. She wears an electronic tag and is facing years of imprisonment, simply for saying that she opposes the Government on Instagram. It's a brutality that is being visited on Ukraine, but it's also a brutality that has been visited on the people of Russia. We need to be able to say together as a Parliament that we will stand against this brutality, and that we will stand with the generosity of people across Wales and across the international community who have supported the people of Ukraine, who have reached out to the people of Ukraine.

Myself and the Counsel General, Mick Antoniw, who has led in an extraordinary, emotional way a response in Wales to this invasion, we stood at the border on the way to Lviv in December, and we stood there for three hours amongst other vehicles full of aid being given by people in other countries to the people of Ukraine. We saw human generosity, human commitment and human solidarity in those trucks and vans and cars, in that snow, waiting to cross the border to give to the people of Ukraine everything that they'd been able to collect in their home countries—generosity in action, generosity of spirit and a generosity of commitment and solidarity.

Our minds move, at the moment, to next week's anniversary, and we see again the troops being mobilised on the borders of Ukraine, and we see again that Putin is determined to crush the spirit of the people of Ukraine. So, we will say again that we will stand with the people of Ukraine, and we will say again that we will continue to act in a spirit of solidarity to ensure that the people of Ukraine receive the support that they require, not only to withstand the invasion and the cruelty and the brutality, but also to then rebuild their country afterwards.

We've seen, in my time, trying here to help support the people of Ukraine—. We saw what that meant for people in Lviv in December. Tomorrow, we will leave here again to travel to Kyiv next week with more aid, more support. Members on all sides of this Chamber, in all parties represented in this Parliament, have worked together in order to provide the support that is required to deliver that aid and that commitment to the people of Ukraine. And that is a testament, I think, to the power of a parliamentary democracy.

We have seen also the importance of the structures of our security, our defence and of our economic prosperity in the west tested as never before. It was important this week to see NATO leaders meeting and recommitting to ensuring that the Ukrainian army has the munitions that it requires to defend its territory. And we need to say in the plan—which I accept the Conservatives have asked for, and I would like to see it as well—that we will support the Welsh defence industry in sustaining the munitions production that is required in order to defend the people of Ukraine. We will continue to argue for the vehicles, the tanks and the weaponry that is required to defend the people of Ukraine. Warm words matter for nothing when you are fighting a dictator. What we need to be able to do is ensure that Ukraine has the bullets and the shells and the munitions to defend its territory as well.

Bringing my remarks to a close, Deputy Presiding Officer, war impacts people. It impacts human beings. The images that we saw over the last year on our tv screens have been truly heartbreaking. Mothers and fathers crying over their children. Children crying over their fathers and mothers. Myself and the Counsel General witnessed last December a child saying goodbye to a father in uniform, standing at the bus stop in Lviv in the early morning darkness, in tears, saying goodbye. Images that we have seen before, but images that we saw in black and white, and not images that we expected to see in the harsh technicolour of the twenty-first century. 

Many of us have spent a lifetime campaigning for peace on this continent, and have witnessed the reality of genocide on this continent in our lifetimes. The lesson that we must learn from Ukraine is that we provide all the support necessary to defend Ukraine, its people, its population. We help and work with Ukraine to rebuild the country afterwards. And then, we hold to account, in international tribunals, the people who have practised this brutality and this war. They then have to accept responsibility for the lives that they have broken and the damage that they have done to Ukraine and our European homeland. Thank you.