As a member of the UK Parliament Delegation at the Council of Europe, Richard Holden MP and other MPs from around Europe debate the expulsion of Russia from the Council of Europe.
Richard writes:
I am immeasurably proud of the selfless responses and offers of help from my North West Durham constituents towards the people of Ukraine. They are displaying the same charitable and hospitable nature that I see all the time as their MP. These values of human decency and compassion for others unite us and they are ones Vladimir Putin abhors.
On Tuesday, I was proud to represent the Parliament of our United Kingdom at the Council of Europe. The Council was born out of the rubble and the horrors of The Second World War. This week we were tasked with a response to Putin’s war and atrocities and to debate the expulsion of Putin’s Russia from this important international institution that every European nation bar Belarus is a member of.
During my time as Special Advisor at the Ministry of Defence, I visited Ukraine with the Defence Secretary. The UK had just stepped-up Operation Orbital, training Ukrainian forces following Russia’s invasion of the Donbas region and seizure of Crimea – the only nation to do so. Our training has aided the Ukrainians in defending their nation, where it is clear they are fighting with every fibre of their being. They fight not just for themselves, their families and their country but for their right to live as a free people. A value that we all share and must support.
While at the Council, I met with Lisa Yenko. Aged just 31, she is the leader of the Ukranian delegation. Her constituency is in Kyiv, where her father is caring for her 96-year-old grandmother. She wanted to thank the UK for the huge ongoing support since the invasion of Crimea for Ukraine and for being the first nation to send defensive weapons in support of her country. Speaking with her and the other Ukranian MPs, some of whom had fled with their children, was very moving.
Just before my speech in the Council of Europe, the Russian Government sent a hastily crafted message read out by the Chairman: “Russia has formally announced its intentions to leave the Council of Europe.” After hearing the condemnation of speaker after speaker from countries as diverse as Finland, Armenia, and Switzerland, it was increasingly clear that the Russian Government was getting increasingly embarrassed and alarmed. Embarrassed that yet again the international community was coming together to condemn them. But we were not going to allow them to scurry away.
With nations traditionally neutral and non-aligned, like Austria, and countries who are traditionally supportive of Russia, like Serbia, all supporting the expulsion of Russia from the Council of Europe, the Russian people need to know just how much Putin’s actions have caused their great country to become an international pariah. Every country present found common cause, based on shared values and the respect for humanity, and without one dissenting vote, voted to kick Russia out instead.
The struggle of the people of Ukraine is a collective international one against tyranny. Against the ‘might is right’ mantra that Putin lives by. And against the values expressed overwhelmingly by my North West Durham constituents of sheer human decency. We must continue to do all we can to support those values and the people of Ukraine.
Slava Ukraini.