In her first major interview, new Foreign Secretary Yvette Cooper tells The Mirror letting Russian aggression go unchecked harms security across Europe, including at home in Britain
Russian attempts to grind down will fail and Britain will support Kyiv to peace and beyond, the new Foreign Secretary has declared.
In her first major interview, Yvette Cooper warned that letting Russian aggression go unchecked harms security across Europe, including at home in Britain. The Mirror accompanied Ms Cooper as she travelled to Kyiv for her first trip as Foreign Secretary as Ukraine faces intensified bombardment from Moscow. Nato countries are on high alert following Russia ’s violation of Polish airspace on Wednesday.
Russia and Belarus were also conducting military drills on Friday and Saturday, testing nerves on Nato’s eastern flank. Speaking to the Mirror on the overnight train from Kyiv, Ms Cooper said: “Ukraine’s security is our security. If Putin’s aggression goes unchecked, that affects the stability and the security of the whole of Europe, including the stability and the security of the UK.”
The Foreign Secretary met President Zelensky on her visit, where she told him Ukraine had Britain’s unwavering support. Ms Cooper said: “My message to [President] Zelensky is we will support them, we will stand with them and continue to do so.”
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Vladimir Putin’s blatant stalling on peace talks as Russia ramps up its attacks on Ukraine has triggered skepticism that the Kremlin tyrant has any plans of coming to the table.
To break the impasse, Ms Cooper said it was vital to continue to offer military support and push for security guarantees to defend a future peace deal, through Keir Starmer’s Coalition of the Willing partnership with allies.
Tightening the screws on the Russian economy will be vital, she added, after announcing a raft of new sanctions on Putin’s war machine. “We have to put much stronger economic pressure on Russia and on Putin to get them to come to the table to get the potential to end the war, which is what the people of Ukraine want,” she said.
Ms Cooper also confirmed a further £142million in aid to help families on the frontline and to shore up battered energy infrastructure ahead of the winter.
She explained: “What Putin wants to do is grind them down and that’s why we’ve provided extra support through the winter and for their energy systems, so that Russian attempts to demoralise and grind down Ukrainian will fail.”
“If Ukraine cant support families who end up losing their homes as a result of attacks then that’s much harder for them to maintain their resistance. We need that continued resistance against Russian aggression and that’s why countries pulling together to support those Ukrainian families is really important.”
In Kyiv, she met families who had been forced out of their homes in Donetsk, in Eastern Ukraine, at a charity that had been recently damaged by a Russian strike. One mum told her how her son was afraid to go out to play football in case the air raid sirens went off.
Ms Cooper said: “It’s a European city, a beautiful European city that is under bombardment.
“Families talk about trying to find a bathroom to hide in when the drones come as they have to move away from the windows, so they have to hide in the hallways or rush down to a Metro station or rush down to the parking basement in the middle of the night because of the bombardment. I think people forget this is a European city, being bombarded in war.”
This grim reality was brought home to her by the Ukrainian family she hosted at the start of the war in her West Yorkshire constituency. It came about after she met a Ukrainian dancer at a Strictly-themed fundraiser, organised by the family of rugby league legend Rob Burrow.
Yeva Drozhzhyna, a talented ballroom dancer, came from her home near Kyiv with her mother Katerina to stay with Ms Cooper’s family before returning home in 2023. Yeva and her dance partner Zakhar, who also came to Yorkshire, even achieved their dream of performing in Blackpool at the Tower Ballroom. The pair met up with Ms Cooper while she was in Kyiv.
Yvette Cooper and the Prime Minister of Ukraine, Yulia Svyrydenko, visit the Cabinet of Ministers, which was damaged during a missile strike(Image: PA)
“It was lovely to see them again,” she said. “They would tell the stories about how they had to leave their homes when the sirens started, when the invasion first started and how terrifying it was for them.
“Now they’re back in Ukraine and their families are working to keep supporting jobs and the economy in Ukraine, and the defence of Ukraine, and also as young people having great ambitions for the future as dancers.”
Ms Cooper takes on the Foreign Secretary job at an extremely fraught time, with conflict spiralling in the Middle East as well as at home in Europe. She dismissed the suggestion – by her husband Ed Balls on his podcast – that she was frustrated to be moved from the Home Office in the Cabinet reshuffle just as progress was starting to be made on tackling the asylum crisis.
But she will focus on similar priorities at the Foreign Office – security, migration, and jobs and growth at home. Ms Cooper said: “This is the most incredible job, it’s a total honour to do the job as Foreign Secretary, it’s one of the most incredible jobs to do in Government.”
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