IT WAS a privilege to have been part of a trade union and left-wing, socialist delegation to Kiev between February 19-23 2022. The group comprised Mick Whelan (Aslef general secretary), Mick Antoniw and Adam Price (both Welsh Assembly member), Julie Ward (former MEP), Paul Mason (journalist) and Yuliya Yurchenko (Greenwich University).

We all felt that given the situation it was important that we made a physical visit to the Ukraine to show our support.

It was surreal walking round Kiev the day we arrived seeing people going about their lives as normal and being able to go to a Ukrainian restaurant for our evening meal given the reports in the British press and Foreign Office advice that we had received not to travel unless essential.

It was only when we began attending the first of our planned meetings that I realised that to the Ukrainian people living with the threat of a full invasion by Russia had become their normal.

Talking to the trade unions at the Trade Union Federation and the Independent Trade Union Confederation, especially the mining unions, it became clear the devastating impact the annexation of Crimea and the Russian support for the separatists fighting in the east of Ukraine had had.

Around 40 coalmines had been closed because they were not safe to operate due to the fighting which had taken away the jobs of the miners with very little support in finding alternative employment.

The trade unions spoke about the difficulties their members had in retaining employment and safety protections against a government that was trying to water them down to attract overseas investment to boost the economy — a very similar situation to the difficulties we have in Britain without the added complication of war and the threat of invasion by Russia.

Civil rights and social groups that we met were organising to protect democratic freedoms and civil liberties.

We spoke with three young women who had family members detained in the Crimea and the eastern Donbass by Russia.

They were being held without charge at a location unknown to the families and although two had telephone contact with their loved ones, one had had no contact.

What came across very strongly from our meetings with the deputy ministers for defence and foreign affairs, MPs, ombudsman, the commander of the 112 Battalion of the Territorial Army and the Mayor of Kiev Vitali Klitschko was that they knew they were on their own and did not expect to be fighting alongside Nato soldiers.

They were asking for the weapons they needed to mount a credible defence of their country against a larger and better equipped enemy force.

While they were grateful for the support they had received from other countries so far they needed more.

There was no doubt that they would fight to the best of their ability to defend their country and their independence. They were defending their right to self-determination as a sovereign nation, to decide for themselves if they wished to join Nato or the EU.

I could not believe when watching the news coverage the day after returning to Britain what was unfolding in the Ukraine.

In the weeks that have passed I have been thinking of what could have been done to prevent the invasion.

Could Western governments not have been stronger in their condemnation of Russia when they annexed the Crimea and funded the war in the east of Ukraine for the last eight years?

Had the decision by European countries, including Britain, to take the short term, easy and cheap option to green up our economies by dashing for Russian gas and oil been a factor in Putin’s decision that he could get away with a full invasion?

Has our government been negligent in closing our coalmines and coal-fired power stations instead of utilising clean coal technologies and Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS) to ensure we have a secure and affordable source of indigenous energy without being dependent on imported energy?

Boris Johnson has once again ignored the clean use of coal in his energy plan opting for new nuclear without a solution to how we can dispose of the nuclear waste or how we would war-proof them.

We are now in the midst of an energy crisis made worse by the conflict in Ukraine. We are paying for this through our pockets in higher energy costs but the Ukrainian people are paying in blood.

The people of the Ukraine deserve our support in practical ways with the most extreme sanctions against Russia possible, weapons to defend themselves including surface to air missiles, if it is not practical to impose a no-fly zone above Ukraine.

They need humanitarian aid for the millions be displaced by the war, and a safe haven in neighbouring countries.

The British government has been too slow to recognise the danger of what was happening in the Ukraine and the effect it would have on Britain and has been too slow to react.

This senseless war is being driven by Putin and his failure to accept that the world has changed since the fall of the Soviet Union and that Ukraine as a sovereign state has the right to decide its own future allied to whoever they wish.

We must support the people of Ukraine to defend democracy for all and we must not hold back on the support we give.