Promises 1/2 million medical items for Ukraine

Sturgeon says she will send 500,000 medical items to Ukraine to help those “fighting a battle for democracy and freedom” against their Russian invaders. While visiting a distribution centre that was collating the items she described this as an initial consignment and said that while the conflict was ongoing she do as much as she could to support them. Predicting that the war would be “likely to be grimmer and more deadly in the weeks and months to come” she asked that the Prime Minister make it easier for fleeing Ukrainians to come to the UK. She described the UK Government as having moved in the right right direction but not far enough.

I would appeal to the Prime Minister to stop moving forward incrementally, stop having to be dragged into a better position. Follow the example of the European Union who’s opened its doors and said people from Ukraine will get entry and the right to stay for three years, follow the example of Ireland as they drop visa requirements, open the doors of the UK to people fleeing this horror in Ukraine and sort the paperwork later.That’s the humanitarian thing to do, it’s what we need to do to give life to the words of support that everybody is articulating right now. But it’s also the practical and necessary thing to do.I don’t think any of us has properly grasped the magnitude of the population displacement that is going to come from this war.

She also said that the donation of so many medical items would not mean that the Scottish NHS would go without.