This week, in his role as Shadow Foreign Secretary, Andrew Mitchell visited Ukraine to emphasise the total unity of the British government and the opposition with Ukraine in their fight against Russia’s illegal invasion, the murder of their citizens and destruction of their infrastructure.
In a meeting with their Foreign Minister, Andrew talked about British help - under both the last and current government and the determination to stand by Ukraine until the Russians are expelled.
He also met members of the Ukrainian Parliament and the all-party group for UK-Ukraine and the Deputy Speaker of their Parliament.
Andrew visited the church at Bucha (above) and the site of massacres when the Russians first invaded, to lay a wreath on behalf of the British opposition, and the people of the Royal Town of Sutton Coldfield.
He also visited the Centre for Victims and Witnesses - a justice programme partly funded by Britain - and had meetings in the Presidency, where he talked about the support the British people are showing for Ukrainian refugees including in the Royal Town.
Andrew said:
“I told them how 11-year-old Ukrainian Melisa Kogut and her family – mother Nataly, brother Akim and grandma Galina – found shelter with Sutton Coldfield residents, and how Melisa sang the Ukrainian national anthem in a moving concert at Wylde Green’s Emmanuel Church (pictured above). Sutton Coldfield continues to play its part in supporting the people of Ukraine.”
“I also visited the Maidan square (above) where protests led to students being shot – sparking an uprising of more than a million people asserting their right to freedom. Today, as I saw, it is a shrine to the fallen.
“I came to deliver a simple message: all parties across our Parliament stand firmly with Ukraine. Their fight is our fight because if Putin succeeds, he will not stop there.
“In spite of the horrors they have suffered, which I saw starkly demonstrated, the determination of all Ukraine to defeat Russia’s war machine never falters.
“This is a country that proactively plans for a future where Russian aggression is a thing of the past.
“The UK will stand behind Ukraine until that moment of freedom comes.”