North Devon MP will demand more support for Ukraine following Kyiv visit

North Devon MP Ian Roome has returned from a cross-party Defence Select Committee visit to Ukraine and has said he will continue to call for more support for the embattled nation.

The delegation visited Kyiv and met with Ukrainian Members of Parliament, including several who are actively serving in the military and are part of Ukraine’s National Security, Defence and Intelligence Committee.

During the visit, the committee gained valuable insights into Ukraine’s current defence capabilities and the strategies being employed by the nation’s leadership in response to ongoing security challenges.

Above and below: The delegation visited key cultural and historical sites, including the National Museum of the History of Ukraine in the Second World War.

The delegation also met with Ukraine’s Minister for Veterans Affairs, who is working closely with officials from the British Embassy to strengthen support for Ukrainian veterans returning from the front line.

The discussions focused on sharing best practices and exploring how the UK’s experience in veteran welfare and rehabilitation can help enhance Ukraine’s veterans’ services.

Mr Roome, a former RAF serviceman, was selected for the defence committee last year and works with the group to examine the expenditure, administration, and policy of the Ministry of Defence and its associated public bodies.

Following the visit, Mr Roome said he will continue to press ministers on ramped-up support for Ukraine. Together with the Liberal Democrats, he is also calling on the government to bring in new sanctions to cut the Kremlin’s oil and gas revenues — currently funding Putin’s barbarism in Ukraine — and finally seize the £25billion in frozen Russian assets across the UK.

Mr Roome said: “Meeting Ukrainian parliamentarians and witnessing first-hand the resilience and unity of the Ukrainian people was genuinely humbling. I spoke to the officials in Kyiv about North Devon’s host families and the Ukrainian women and children they have welcomed through the Homes for Ukraine scheme. Here, people opened spare rooms, schools found places, volunteers ran ESOL classes — real kindness has been shown.

“Peace, kindness and democratic values are not slogans; they are choices we make together — and ones we must work to stand by both at home and abroad.

“If we let Putin violate the sovereignty of NATO’s countries without consequence, we only invite more aggression.”

In addition to official meetings, the delegation visited key cultural and historical sites, including the Motherland Monument and the National Museum of the History of Ukraine in the Second World War.

They also visited the Wall of Remembrance of the Fallen for Ukraine, located on the walls of St Michael’s golden-domed monastery.

Above: The Wall of Remembrance of the Fallen for Ukraine. Credit: VoidWanderer/Wikimedia

This was initially established in 2017 to honour those who lost their lives in the Donbas conflict and the memorial has since grown to include the faces of countless people who have sacrificed their lives defending Ukraine. Families and friends continue to adorn the wall with flowers, candles and flags, keeping the memory of their loved ones alive.

Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February 2022 started the deadliest war on European soil in more than 70 years.

Only last week, a Russian bombardment of energy infrastructure left hundreds of thousands of people in Ukraine’s Chernihiv region without power and some without water, with repairs slowed down by the lingering threat of drone strikes, officials said.

The energy ministry said the regional capital, also called Chernihiv and the northern part of the province had lost all electricity supply. The attack, which also targeted the neighbouring Sumy region of northern Ukraine, was the latest in a campaign of Russian strikes targeting the Ukrainian energy grid ahead of winter.

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President Volodymyr Zelenskiy wrote on Telegram two hours later that repairs were now under way. “Russia’s tactics are to murder people and terrorise them with the cold,” he said.

“Putin pretends to be ready for diplomacy and peace negotiations, while in reality this night Russia launched a brutal missile and drone attack,” Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha wrote on X.

On October 20, Defence Secretary John Healey said European troops were ‘ready to deploy’ to Ukraine in the coming weeks if US President Donald Trump and Russian President Putin agreed on a ceasefire.

After a surprise call a few days earlier, the US and Russian presidents are said to be planning to meet in Budapest, Hungary. President Zelensky has not been invited but said he was ready to join.

Asked if troops could deploy if a deal was reached in the next two weeks, Mr Healey said: “If President Trump can broker a peace, then we will be ready to help secure that peace.”

But he said Ukrainians must be the “people who would decide how and what” was negotiated.