Cole-Hamilton: SNP naïve to caveat Ukraine aid

Scottish Liberal Democrat leader Alex Cole-Hamilton MSP has today written to the SNP Government following reports that ministers banned Ukraine from using medical supplies donated by Scotland’s NHS to treat wounded soldiers on the front line.

Mr Cole-Hamilton is now asking the Scottish Government to explain why it took this position and whether it will now provide an unqualified donation which can be used to support injured soldiers on the front line.

His letter follows a report in The Sunday Times that SNP ministers privately attached conditions to a donation of surplus NHS equipment to Ukraine. These conditions stated that the equipment must only be used for ‘civilian’ purposes, meaning they could not be used on the front lines or in a network of military hospitals treating Ukrainian soldiers.

In April, Mr Cole-Hamilton drove to Lviv in a convoy of ambulances to deliver a consignment of medical aid for immediate use on the Ukrainian front line.

The text of Mr Cole-Hamilton’s letter to the Cabinet Secretary for Finance, Shona Robison, is as follows:

Dear Shona,

I am writing to you about the conditions of a Scottish Government donation to Ukraine.

It concerns the Scottish Government’s announcement in October 2024 that it would send £800,000 worth of ventilators, mattresses, beds and oxygen concentrators to Ukraine. In making the announcement, the First Minister said that the government was offering “unqualified support” for Ukraine’s “independence, sovereignty and territorial integrity”.

It has, however, emerged that the Scottish Government privately caveated this donation by stating that it could only be used for ‘civilian’ purposes. This meant it could not be used on the front lines or in a network of military hospitals treating wounded Ukrainian soldiers.

This decision seems naïve when it is those Ukrainian soldiers who have been holding back Russian aggression day and night for more than three years. They need all the medical aid they can get; to deny them that is to deny the seriousness of the threat they are fighting against.

Given that there was no need to qualify the donation, the inclusion of conditions is even more questionable. Aid experts have indicated that there is no rule that places any obligation on the Scottish Government to restrict or set conditions in the supplies it is donating to Ukraine.

The enormity of what the Ukrainian people are trying to achieve cannot be overstated. That is why earlier this year I visited Lviv to deliver a consignment of medical aid for immediate use on the front lines.

During my time there, I visited the National Rehabilitation Centre of the Armed forces of Ukraine and met with several amputee survivors of the Eastern front. Many of their lives had been saved only thanks to medical kit donated by western allies. I also spoke to various military commanders, soldiers and politicians about the impact of this aid. They spoke of the role it would play in helping troops return to the front lines or readjust to civilian life after the conflict ends, as well as increasing resilience and putting Ukraine in the strongest possible position.

In light of this, why did the Scottish Government choose to set such specific conditions in this donation and will it now send an unqualified gift of support to Ukraine so that they are not prevented from using it on treating those fighting along the front lines?  

Yours sincerely,

Alex Cole-Hamilton

MSP for Edinburgh Western