I urged the Defence Minister to ensure that everyone who commits war crimes, whether they are in command or regular soldiers, are brought to justice and that we maintain the pressure on Putin by doing everything we can to increase the scale of desertions from the Russian army.

Mr Speaker: Toby Perkins.

Toby Perkins: Thank you very much, Mr Speaker. Putin’s murderous actions over this weekend are a sure-fire sign of his desperation. His desperation partly comes from the host of desertions we are seeing from the Russian military and an army, thought to be his pride, that is actually in retreat but will the Minister… does the Minister agree with me that we need to be making the point that every single person in Russian uniform who commits a war crime will be sought, not just those who were in positions of power, and also that we should be doing everything we can to increase the scale of Russian desertions and undermine Putin’s campaign in that way?

Minister: I am grateful for the Hon. gentleman. I completely agree with what he has just said. You know, I don’t think we can at all underestimate the scale of the atrocities that are being committed as war crimes. There are many members in the House who have served in the military. There are many members in the House who have been in the battlefield. They are trained to the laws of the Geneva Convention, to the laws of the battlefield, as are many people in the Russian. Certainly the Russian leaders will know those laws and there are consequences to that and I am proud that we are putting funding and investment and resources into the ICC to bring these people to court and I think that whatever we can do, I know would have the support across the House because we have to, we have to say, it doesn’t matter who you are, if you’re a Squaddie to a General, if you have committed a war crime, we will find you, we will send you to prison and if you don’t believe that we are still sending former SS officers, who are almost in their hundreds to prison today.