'I've just returned from war-torn Ukraine - Roman Abramovich row is shameful' - The Mirror

Christopher Ford, of the Ukraine Solidarity Campaign, says it is 'shameful' Shadow Attorney General David Wolfson is acting as a lawyer for Russian oligarch Roman Abramovich

I have just returned from delivering vital aid to emergency workers and union members in the Donbas region of Ukraine.

Every day brings blackouts, missile strikes and the deaths of civilians in their homes, schools, hospitals and even kindergartens. Yet Ukrainians remain resilient. They want peace – but they will not hand over their country to Russia and the brutality of life under occupation.

At the Save Ukraine centre, I met children who had been rescued from those occupied areas. One in ten had suffered sexual abuse. More than 20,000 children have been identified as abducted by Russia – an underestimate – meaning child abuse is happening on an industrial scale.

Against this backdrop, it is shameful that sanctioned Russian oligarch Roman Abramovich is obstructing the transfer of £2.5billion from the sale of Chelsea FC to aid Ukraine, while fighting a court battle over billions in frozen assets in Jersey. Even more shameful in the Jersey case is he does so with the assistance of a member of the Conservative Shadow Cabinet.

Lord Wolfson KC is not just any barrister taking on a wealthy client. He is a Conservative peer and the Shadow Attorney General. Abramovich is a sanctioned oligarch who is considered to have strong ties to Putin.

That Lord Wolfson is representing Abramovich in his legal battle, alongside former Trump adviser Eric Herschmann, signals a troubling regression towards ‘business as usual’ with Russian oligarchs. The Tory defence that this is simply a barrister taking on a client does little to inspire confidence.

We cannot pretend this legal wrangling exists in a vacuum. Not when children are being abducted, civilians are being killed and Ukraine is fighting for its very survival. Across the West, populist and far‑right politicians – not least those in the White House – are pushing to ‘normalise’ relations with Moscow. Britain is no exception: see Nigel Farage’s long record of echoing Kremlin talking points.

The failure to act over Wolfson working with sanctioned oligarch raises serious questions about the Tories under Kemi Badenoch’s leadership. It is in the interests of democracy that they are held to account for this shameful affair.

The Labour government must now grasp this situation and deliver a robust response: to introduce emergency legislation to stop sanctioned oligarchs exploiting the UK legal system and transfer all the nearly £30billion in frozen Russian assets in the UK to aid Ukraine.

Ukraine is on the frontline of the battle for democracy, and they need our solidarity more than ever. Join us outside Tory Headquarters on Wednesday 7 January at 5pm — stand with Ukraine and make your voice heard.

Read more on the row, including Lord Wolfson's response HERE.