Motions — Ukraine—Russian Invasion

I seek leave to move a motion without notice on Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

Is there any objection to that course of action being followed? There is none.

💬 Rt Hon JACINDA ARDERN: I move, That this House condemns the recent unprovoked and unjustified invasion of Ukraine by Russia, that it calls on Russia to cease all military operations in Ukraine and withdraw, and express New Zealand’s strong support for Ukraine’s people, its sovereignty and territorial integrity.

I will begin with the words of my colleague, foreign affairs Minister, Nanaia Mahuta. Russia’s invasion of Ukraine is the blatant act of a bully—brutal, intolerable, and an act of aggression that has been met with condemnation from the people and the Parliament of New Zealand.

We are united. Russia’s actions are a direct challenge to our core values: democracy, human rights, and the international rules-based system—values that we rely on for our own peace and security. We live in a world that is increasingly connected and borderless, a world where a challenge to one is a challenge to all. And that is why we have not only taken a strong position in condemning Russia’s invasion because of our beliefs and our values but because, now more than ever, we must all take a stand together.

Vladimir Putin’s decision to launch an unprovoked military invasion of Ukraine is a flagrant breach of international law. By choosing to pursue this entirely avoidable path, innocent lives will be lost. New Zealand and our international partners call on Russia to do what is right. We call for an immediate end to military operations in Ukraine, and a permanent withdrawal to end a pointless war.

The Russian Government has repeatedly ignored opportunities for diplomacy, negotiation, and de-escalation. Instead, Vladimir Putin has ordered an aggressive, unprovoked assault on the people and Government of Ukraine. This was not a miscalculation as a result of Russia’s unprecedented military build-up on Ukraine’s borders; this was a deliberate, calculated, and cynical decision—a decision to violate Ukraine’s sovereignty and territorial integrity, a decision to breach fundamental tenets of international law, and a decision by a permanent member of the United Nations Security Council to violate the UN Charter. Russia must now face the consequences of those decisions; so must Belarus, for its accomplice role in facilitating Russia’s invasion.

We have moved quickly in condemning the invasion. New Zealand immediately implemented a number of measures in response to Russia’s actions. These are: the introduction of targeted travel bans against Russian Government officials and other individuals associated with the invasion of Ukraine, and the prohibition of export of goods to Russian military and security forces. This covers the export of all goods intended for use by the Russian military and security forces, including any armed force, paramilitary force, police force, or militia. This includes weapons and dual-use technology that have a civilian use but are intended for military use or that may have military applications. Such a blanket ban is a significant step, as it removes the ability for exporters to apply for a permit and sends a clear signal of support to Ukraine. And, thirdly, the measures include the suspension of bilateral foreign ministry consultations until further notice.

I want to be very clear here, though: New Zealand has not yet reached the extent of the measures we will take to condemn this act. We are pursuing new measures to target Russian investment, including measures to target financial institutions in New Zealand, including separate but Russian-targeted, specific legislation. We continue to engage with international partners over the collective action we can all take, but it is clear that there will be a significant cost imposed on Russia for their actions. Our message must be clear: we are united.

Hundreds of people have already been killed or injured, hundreds of thousands more already displaced because of a conflict it seems the Russian people did not choose. The harrowing images of displaced or suffering civilians in Ukraine speak volumes of this unfolding tragedy and underline in very stark terms the human consequences of Russia’s aggression.

The scale of the humanitarian crisis that is unfolding is devastating. As a first step, we have moved quickly and announced a contribution of $2 million in humanitarian aid to support those in Ukraine impacted as a result of Russia’s unprovoked invasion. Our initial contribution will help deliver essential humanitarian assistance, with a focus on supporting health facilities and meeting basic needs such as provision of food and hygiene items. We will continue to contribute to humanitarian assistance, as a core part of our role in the global response.

I want to finish with the words of the President of Ukraine, who, hours before Russia invaded, said the following: “Our main goal is peace in Ukraine and the safety of our people … For that, we are ready to have talks with anybody, including you (Russia) in any format, on any platform. The war will deprive guarantees from everybody—nobody will have security guarantees anymore. Who will suffer from it the most? The people. Who doesn’t want it the most? The people. Who can stop it? The people. But are there those people among you?”

We have all been shaken by what we have seen, because what we have seen is a sense of stability, or order, of security being taken away. That affects all of us. And so, too, must we all act. This war must end.

Слава Україні.

The question is that the motion be agreed to.

I rise on behalf of the Opposition to support this motion and to strongly condemn President Putin’s invasion of Ukraine. There is no possible justification for the death and suffering this unprovoked attack has caused and will continue to cause. Our thoughts are with the people of Ukraine being subjected to such needless violence in their own home, and with their friends and family here in New Zealand and elsewhere who are, right now, fearing for the safety of their loved ones. This is an affront to human rights, an affront to democracy, and an affront to global peace and stability.

It is heartbreaking to see Ukrainians who just days ago were like us, going about their everyday lives, dropping their kids to school, going to work, shopping at the supermarket, are now having to fight for their country. President Putin has shown total disregard for international law and the sovereignty of Ukraine. This attack is a wholly unnecessary escalation that warrants a severe response from the international community. We are seeing that response from many: the US, Canada, the UK, Japan, Australia, Singapore, the EU, and others have all imposed strong sanctions restricting Russian banks from accessing their capital markets and services. Export bans have been put in place and the assets of Russian elites affiliated with the Kremlin have been frozen. Russian banks are being cut off from the SWIFT international payment system. The assets of its central bank are being frozen. The scope and severity of these sanctions is unprecedented.

New Zealand’s lack of an autonomous sanctions regime means we can’t join in these coordinated economic efforts. We support all actions taken to date by the Government to join in this response, but we encourage the Government to take two simple steps so that New Zealand can play an even stronger role. First, urgently pass autonomous sanctions legislation. National has a bill ready to go and we’re willing to work with and support the Government to get legislation through this House—but let’s do it quickly. Second, create a humanitarian visa for the family members of Ukrainians already in New Zealand, and fast track existing visa applications from the Ukraine.

History is occurring as we speak and New Zealand must take strong, meaningful action to help the global community stop this senseless war. The National Party condemns Russia’s actions and the catastrophic damage to human life they will bring.

Thank you, Mr Speaker. Many years ago, I had the privilege of working in the international headquarters of a student-run student exchange programme that was set up in the aftermath of World War II to promote peace and understanding between nations: l’Association internationale des étudiants en sciences économiques et commerciales. One of my closest friends there—one of my colleagues and flatmates—was Karina Luchinkina from Ukraine, who was an extraordinary young woman of mixed Ukrainian and Russian heritage, and I have been thinking about her and her family still in Ukraine and of the work that we did together to try and promote peace and understanding between nations a great deal in the recent days and weeks.

In the horror of war, it is ordinary people like Karina and her family who suffer the most. The people of Syria know this. The people of Yemen know this. The people of Iraq and Afghanistan know this. Our forebears and those who were involved in the wars of the 20th century know this. So to watch an unfolding and full-scale attack on the people of Ukraine was shocking. It was frightening and it was deeply depressing.

The Green Party strongly condemns President Putin’s extraordinary aggression and violence in the strongest terms. We call on Russia to immediately cease military action against the people of Ukraine and to engage in peace talks meaningfully. And our hearts do go out to the people of Ukraine today. New Zealand is a nation that has committed historically to human rights, to non-violence, and to cooperation at a global level. Multilateral rules-based order and diplomatic engagement are core pillars of New Zealand’s independent foreign policy. What Russia has done cuts across all of that. It stands in stark opposition to peace, sovereignty, and freedom across the world.

Our response must focus, first and foremost, on what we can do to help those that this war will hurt the most: the ordinary people who are caught in the waking nightmare. That we are already seeing hundreds of thousands of Ukrainians seeking refuge in other European States, fleeing with little more than the clothes on their back, leaving their homes, their families, their hopes, and their dreams—the Green Party strongly supports the Government’s focus on humanitarian aid to support Ukraine in the first instance.

Whilst the preference, of course, is always for peace to prevail and for people to be able to return to their homes, right now there are tens, if not hundreds, of thousands of people facing an uncertain future in overcrowded refugee camps along the border. The Green Party urges the Government to commit to supporting Ukrainian refugees in every way possible—be that through resettlement or through direct humanitarian support in Europe. That must extend to everybody in Ukraine, regardless of their race or ethnicity, including migrant workers and students. We also know that it is the political activists, the journalists, the human rights defenders, and the rainbow community members who are more likely to be particular targets of the violence from Vladimir Putin’s regime. Now is the moment for New Zealand to deliver on its historic commitment to human rights and to welcome Ukrainian people and their families with open arms.

When it comes to diplomacy, we support New Zealand’s Ministers and officials doing all that they can to support efforts for peaceful de-escalation. The world must work together to resolve this conflict. The international institution that President John F Kennedy referred to as “our last best hope for peace”, the United Nations, is imperfect by design. However we go forward, we must ensure that we uphold the principles of human rights, multilateralism, and the international rules-based order. To this end, we support the diplomatic efforts being made by the Hon Nanaia Mahuta, and we wish her success, however improbable, in her work.

We also support New Zealand making efforts where it can to mediate for peace amongst international partners. And, as a long-term supporter of denuclearisation efforts, New Zealand should continue to push for an end to the long shadow cast by the threat of nuclear conflict.

Despite everything, it has been heartening to see huge numbers of people in Europe and in Russia itself turn out in recent days to protest against the war. It does give me hope that we can yet find a way out of this conflict for the Ukrainian people. A world without war is possible, but it does require enduring commitments by all nations to peace-building and diplomacy. New Zealand may only be a small nation, but we must never lose focus on doing everything that we can to support peace. Nō reira, tēnā koutou, tēnā koutou, tēnā tātou katoa.

Thank you, Mr Speaker. On behalf of ACT, I would like to join with other leaders supporting this motion condemning the barbaric, illegal, unprovoked invasion of Ukraine by Vladimir Putin’s Russia.

And I’d like to stand in support of those brave Ukrainians—many of whom only 96 hours ago were shopping and had in their hands their iPhone, looking at Instagram—now dug into trenches around their city defending their home with a military weapon. It is the most extraordinary display of grit and courage from those people—from their leader—and a display of what people are prepared to do to defend their home, to defend their freedom, and we are proud to stand with them and feel we should be doing more to support them, because no country has more to lose than New Zealand when a rules-based, values-based international order is lost and thuggery takes its place. If others are standing up—and they are, in the most extraordinary way, right around the world—to the kind of thuggery exhibited by Vladimir Putin, we, as a small nation, with a history of being right and taking moral stands on global issues of the day, should be right beside them.

I read in the newspaper over the weekend that this is “World War Wired”, a war where people can and are making a difference all over the world, not just through Governments, not just through States, but donating, volunteering, helping in the most unexpected ways, and it is extraordinarily hopeful that, actually, one dictator from one country—despite having, as Stalin said to the Pope, more divisions—does not have the power to overwhelm freedom and democracy. That has to be our hope, but New Zealand has a role to play joining in that “World War Wired” movement.

We need to say to Vladimir Putin: he is frozen out, the walls are going up, and we will not accept him in this world, so long as his actions are unacceptable. And I say, “Good on you.” to Fonterra saying, “Sorry, we’re not going to sell to you. We don’t share your values.” I say, “Good on you.” to our allies around the world who’ve said, “Sorry, no more banking system, because we don’t share those values.” And that is why it is so critical that I join with the call of the National leader that New Zealand has the legal ability to join in implementing similar sanctions at a parliamentary level. This is a Government that will go into urgency in this Parliament at the drop of a hat—doesn’t even have to be urgent. If there was ever a time to use urgency, then passing autonomous sanctions legislation—that’s the time to use urgency right now. And that’s what we should be doing, so we can join in that moral movement against this Government of Vladimir Putin.

And I have to say, for many people this is deeply personal. I can’t claim to have any great connection to Ukraine, but I know someone who does—Nataliya Shchetkova, the proprietor of La Vista restaurant of St Heliers, who came to national attention a few years ago. And I got in touch with her and I said, “I’m so sorry, I can’t imagine what it must be like for your family.” And she said, “All we want is for them to be here.” As the rest of the world opens its borders unconditionally to hundreds of thousands of Ukrainian refugees walking across their border—of course it is harder for New Zealand, a country that is literally on the opposite of the world. But if there are to be barriers to those people being reunited, safe, with their family here in New Zealand, surely the barrier should be geographical rather than legal. We should let them come here immediately, in these circumstances.

It’s critical that a worldwide effort ensures the Russian people see that Vladimir Putin, who many of them like—and I know Russian people who like Vladimir Putin. You know why? Because he doubled their standard of living in 10 years. It’s important they see he’s had them frozen out, and they should be asking him, “Why has the rouble just dropped 30 percent in 24 hours, Mr Putin, if you’re so great?” It’s absolutely critical that they’re frozen out and that they are excluded from normal, day-to-day life of the State, so long as they behave in unacceptable ways.

It’s also worth asking where this man came from. And it’s always good to read. A great thing to read right now is an old classic, The Road to Serfdom. The Road to Serfdom tells us that if you have an economic system where you can’t pay people for their efforts, you have to force them. And the enforcement required often looks like the KGB. And organisations all have a culture, and they promote individuals that suit their culture. Vladimir Putin—you can draw a direct line from the socialist experiment in Russia 100 years ago, to the enforcement tactics required to make it work, to the kind of monster it creates who is now terrorising people in Ukraine. That is a question of values.

It is an opportunity to talk about our values of democracy. The first thing I remember seeing on the TV screen was a whole lot of adults very badly dressed in 1980s fashion, tearing down a concrete wall decorated with graffiti. Of course, being six years old at the time, I didn’t know there was a place called Berlin, I didn’t know there was a Cold War, I didn’t know there was a wall—being six, I didn’t know a huge amount about those things. But I knew it was important, and the first thing I remember—it’s seared on my mind—watching on TV was my grandfather’s gravelly voice saying, “Well, it’s good, people uniting.”

And for 20 years after that, I could look around the world and see that democracy and freedom were winning—more and more countries were turning to democracy. It looked like the world was going to work out. Francis Fukuyama said history had ended—or we’d reached the end of history. Helen Clark said that we were living in a benign strategic environment. We had a free-trade agreement with China, the first Western country to do so, as we hoped they, too, would join Western liberal democracy.

The truth is it hasn’t worked out so well over the last 15 years since the great financial crisis. Democracy around the world is practised by fewer people, with less enthusiasm. And that makes for a more dangerous world for a country like New Zealand. That is why we need to reflect strongly on our values, our place in the world, and how we behave at times of crisis such as this. That’s why we should be putting the walls up and freezing them out and giving ourselves the legal ability to do so. That’s why we should be welcoming those who have family connections in New Zealand to the Ukraine without question, the way the European countries are, and if we were to do those things, then we could say that we are at the forefront of the moral reaction that is putting Vladimir Putin in his place and giving the Russian people the courage to put him there too. Thank you, Mr Speaker.

Members, this is a sitting of the House at which some members are participating remotely. This follows the House’s adoption of rules allowing such sittings and the determination of the Business Committee that from Tuesday, 1 March, members may participate remotely in sittings of the House.

Kia ora, Mr Speaker. Can I be heard?

💬 SPEAKER: Yes, you can.

Thank you. Tēnā tātou e hika mā tēnā tātou kua whāiti nei i tēnei rā ki te tautoko i te kōrero kua whārikihia i roto i tō tātou Whare i tēnei rā. Nei rā anō hoki te tangi atu ki a rātou te hunga kua riro tītapu ki te pō. Rātou kua mate i ngā heipūtanga a Rūhia ki runga i a Ukaraina i tēnei rā. Kei te tangi, kei te tangi, kei te tangi.

[Greetings to one and all who have amassed here today to support the issue laid before us in our House. We also mourn the loss of those who have passed. Those who have been killed by the Russian onslaught on Ukraine today. We grieve, we grieve, we grieve.]

We are living through unprecedented and trying times. In the midst of a global pandemic and in the face of climate change and ecological collapse, kotahitanga and unity are more imperative now than ever. When the rich and the powerful play war games, it is the poor and the vulnerable who pay the ultimate price. Our hearts go out to the people of Ukraine, whose worlds were shattered overnight, who will die defending their homeland, and whose families will bear the burden of this war for generations to come. Our hearts also go out to the working people of Russia, who will be sent to their deaths on the rich man’s whim. Their mothers grieve as ours do.

The people of Ukraine are caught in the middle of an imperialist proxy war, the likes of which we have seen in the Middle East and many other countries. Tangata whenua are all too familiar with the evils of imperialism and colonisation. This mamae is still felt today and is why I am speaking in this House on this motion. Te Paati Māori wholeheartedly condemn the unprovoked and unjustified actions of Vladimir Putin, his Government, and the fascist ideologies that enable this type of violence and supremacy. Nō reira e hika mā, tēnā tātou katoa.

[Therefore, greetings one and all.]

Motion agreed to.

Слава Україні.