Welsh Labour MP ‘ashamed’ of UK’s response to Ukraine invasion

A Welsh Labour MP has said he feels “ashamed” of the UK’s response to the invasion of Ukraine.

Chris Bryant, who represents Rhondda, called for sanctions against the UK-based Russian oligarchs as well as Vladimir Putin’s Kremlin cronies.

Bryant, who is chair of the All-Party Parliamentary Group on Russia has argued that Boris Johnson’s administration has not been tough enough in its approach to sanctions in response to the unprovoked attack.

He told MPs: “Putin is the only enemy. But I do feel ashamed. The United Kingdom signed the Budapest Accord in 1994 guaranteeing the territorial integrity of Ukraine.”

The UK Government has issued sanctions against Putin and his Minister of Foreign Affairs Sergei Lavrov, but Bryant said other high-profile leaders in the Kremlin have been unaffected.

The assets of both men have been frozen across the US, EU, UK and Canada. Both have also been banned from entering the US.

According to Bryant the UK Government needs to go further with who the measures are targeting.

“We are not guaranteeing the territorial integrity of Ukraine,” he said.

“I don’t want war, nobody wants war, but we’re not even sanctioning Sergei Shoygu, the Russian defence minister yet, nor Igor Osipov, the commander of the Black Sea Fleet,” he said.

‘Simply have to accept’

Boris Johnson said people “simply have to accept”  that no Western nation will get involved in the fight militarily.

He added: “Because the consequences of a direct confrontation between the UK and Russia would be I think, and indeed other Western countries and Russia, would not be easy to control.

“And if I can repeat the point I made earlier, I think they would play directly into Putin’s narrative.”