Devastating reality of Putin’s ‘genocide’ for Ukrainian MP

“WELL” said Sophy Ridge, newly returned from maternity leave, “I didn’t expect to start my first programme back with this devastating reality: a war in Europe, civilians, even hospitals, targeted, millions fleeing for their lives”.

Her interviews with Levelling Up Secretary Michael Gove, Sir Keir Starmer, Ukrainian MP Lesia Vasylenko and, from Lithuania, Alexei Navalny’s chief of staff, all shed light on aspects of the Ukrainian crisis – the grim escalation of the war, the refugee crisis, sanctions.

Sky’s deputy political editor, Sam Coates, summed it up for Ridge: “One theme ran through all of the interviews that you did and that is the massive uncertainty that the world’s – that British – politicians, that Ukrainians, all face right now”.

The most telling moment, the one that most acutely reflected that appalling uncertainty, came from Lesia Vasylenko, who is in Strasbourg as part of a

Ukrainian diplomatic delegation.

She said that, after Ukraine, Russia would continue its invasion “across the eastern bloc of countries to get back that big Russian empire” and asserted that major countries had taken merely “halfmeasures” on sanctions as Putin continued his “genocide” against the Ukrainian people.

A photograph was screened of Vasylenko with a gun strapped to her back – a gun she is more than prepared to use. She said she was “very blessed to be in a much better position” than the inhabitants of besieged towns, such as one that had been obliterated just the day before. Her three children (the youngest just nine months) were in a place of safety and she had just spent a couple of hours talking to them; but, after Strasbourg and a diplomatic mission to the UK, she would return to Ukraine.

“The question is, where is that going to be?” she pondered. “Because every time I look at the news, more and more cities are getting bombed as well, in western Ukraine ... I hope to be able to go back to Kyiv, to my own apartment, at some point”.

Michael Gove told Ridge that Putin was prepared to escalate the war on Ukraine and now had “several grisly options” at his disposal, but the minister was understandably careful not to get drawn into any scenarios about chemical or other warfare. He acknowledged that it would be a war crime, as it was in Syria, if Putin deployed chemical weapons in Ukraine. If such a red line were now crossed, “our response is something that will be agreed in concert with our allies”.

The new Homes for Ukraine programme was a huge mobilisation effort to give refugees accommodation and the chance to work here; Gove said he was “exploring what I can do, yes” when asked if he would be registering an interest in the scheme.

He said security checks would be needed to ensure that refugees “are who they say they are”, and went on: “We do need to make sure that people [who register] here are in a position to provide that support, which is why there will need to be security checks as well to make sure that those – I think it would only ever be a tiny minority, but still – those who might be intent on exploitation can be prevented from abusing the system”.

Over on the BBC’S Sunday Morning, Sophie Raworth asked Micheal Martin, the Irish Taoiseach, whether his Government had conducted security checks on the 5,500 Ukrainian refugees who had arrived in his country. No, he said: “Our primary impulse is to assist those fleeing war”. Giving them access to education, health services and social protection income, and the immediate right to work, is “we believe, the correct thing to do in the context of the worst displacement of people, and refugee crisis, since World War Two. Speed is important in a situation like this”.

Michael Palin, who appeared last Sunday, could not hide his emotions yesterday when, after 15 years he was reunited, via satellite, with a Ukrainian, Vadym Kastelli, who lives south of Kyiv.

Reviewing graphic news images of the damage being inflicted on towns and cities by Russian forces, the Daily Telegraph’s Lucy Fisher observed: “We’ve seen scenes that almost mirror a World War One film set, of trenches being dug, of people really bedding in”.

There was a pre-recorded segment with Raworth in Warsaw, a city rapidly running out of space as it seeks to accommodate unprecedented numbers of refugees. “People here look stunned”, she said. “The only noise you really hear is from children in the makeshift playroom and from the dogs and cats – pets too precious to leave behind”.

Read more: Alison Rowat appears in The Herald every Monday and Wednesday