Lords Grand Committee — sitting of 30 June 2026: transcript & video

00:08 - 00:32

Speaker 1

My Lords, I have to remind you that if there is a division in the chamber while we're sitting, this committee will adjourn as soon as the division bells are rung and resume after 10 minutes. Motion for debate, the convention establishing an international claims commission for Ukraine. Lord Johnson of Lainston.

00:32 - 02:57

Speaker 2

Thank you. My Lords, may I please first of all thank the main drafter of this report, Samantha Granger, who worked tirelessly to produce this scrutiny document against a very tight deadline. And I'd also like to thank, and I'm sure I say this on behalf of all the committee, Dominic Walsh and his team who provide first-class support to the committee. And of course, can I say thank you to my colleagues and members of the committee, some of whom are here today. We've just finished our meeting earlier as well, our weekly meeting.

Everyone engaged thoroughly with the process and all contributed fully to its final conclusions in one way or another. I would also like to pay a special tribute to the witnesses who gave up their time to assist us with this inquiry. I'll be honest, my Lords, my initial thoughts around this treaty were that it was potentially a symbolic gesture, but it would yield little fruit. And whilst we would welcome compensation for those damaged by the actions committed by the Russians over the past few years, no real money would be forthcoming for the foreseeable future and the exercise would have little real impact. However, listening to those who spoke to us, I was struck by the actual importance of maintaining a record, assessed against clear evidence of the harm and atrocities committed by the Russians on the people of Ukraine.

The recorded claims submitted so far to the registry run to more than 150,000 in number. But the statistics, as is often the case, mask the systematic brutality of the Russian state against defenseless civilians and their property. The number, I would also add, noble Lords, is also estimated to be a fraction of the real damage done. I have, during the writing of this report and since its publication, also been approached by people involved in the Ukraine conflict, and the anecdotes they have shared with me about the behavior of the Russian state are chilling to say the least. The committee found that whilst there remain significant questions to be asked about where funds would come from to pay compensation, and we highlighted the fact that Russia was an unlikely collaborator to any formal outcome in the short or medium term, the simple acts of recording and assessing transgressions were in themselves very important actions which would enable the victims to have a sense of justice and be a vitally useful process in enabling Ukraine to settle in a post-war future.

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