‘High energy costs we are facing are a price worth paying,’ says MS Antoniw
THE surge in energy bills stoked by the war in Ukraine is a price worth paying, a Ukrainianborn Senedd member who has just returned from the country said.
Mick Antoniw drove a 4x4 containing ration packs, winter clothing, sleeping bags, and medical and cooking equipment to Lviv in the west of the country. It also had Starlink satellite communications equipment – effectively a back-up internet service – made by Elon Musk’s firm SpaceX.
Vladimir Putin’s invasion in February sent commodity prices soaring – especially gas – and pushed already rising inflation to levels not seen in the UK for decades. Governments are spending billions of pounds cushioning householders from the worst effects of the energy shock while scrambling to secure alternative supplies of hydrocarbons.
Mr Antoniw, who has relatives fighting in Ukraine and also relatives who live in Russia, said victory for the invaders would create further global instability and lead to countries spending more and more on defence. “The economic cost cannot be underestimated if Putin is able to succeed,” said the Labour MS for Pontypridd. He added that a wider message would be conveyed, that if you took somewhere by force you’re entitled to do it.
Mr Antoniw was in Ukraine on the eve of the February 24 invasion and has delivered supplies and equipment since. He was accompanied on his latest trip by Blaenau Gwent MS Alun Davies and trade union official and former miner Carwyn Donovan.
While the fighting is taking place in the east and south of Ukraine, missile attacks have targeted wide areas of the country and its power grid.
“No-one is isolated,” said Mr Antoniw. There was though a sense of normality in the west of the country, he said – shops, restaurants and theatres were open, albeit sometimes powered by generators, and Deliveroo drivers were ferrying food to people’s houses.
But festivities were low-key, checkpoints and an 11pm curfew were in place, protective screens positioned around statues, and anti-tank traps visible. Mr Antoniw and his travelling companions were met in Lviv by a miner and military representative from Ukraine. The two contacts drove the 4x4 east to the city of Pavlohrad, and from there north to Ukraine’s second-largest city, Kharkiv.
Asked to describe the general mood among Ukrainians, Mr Antoniw replied: “There is incredible stoicism, incredible resilience. People are angry as well. Many of them have family members in Russia. Whatever bonds there were, they are broken.”
Mr Antoniw said his cousin’s wife in Ukraine would not celebrate Christmas on January 7, when Orthodox Christians normally did, because that’s when Russia’s Orthodox Christians would.
“She said she will celebrate on December 25,” said Mr Antoniw.
He said he had other relatives fighting in the east.
“They say they have nowhere to go and that they are not going to be chased away – and they are incredible grateful to Great Britain, and America in particular,” said Mr Antoniw. “There is no doubt the weaponry has