‘Under near-constant attack’ – Shropshire MP recounts Kiev visit

Coming under attack is nothing new for army veteran Stuart Anderson. Yet the “brutal” Russian drone and missile bombardment he experienced in Ukraine took him by surprise.

“It was like being back in the miliary,” he told the BBC once back from a five-day trip to Kiev earlier this month.

“I never had more than an hour’s sleep at any one time, and some nights were spent in a basement car park taking shelter,” he said.

The Shropshire MP was in the Ukrainian capital as part of a NATO delegation along with other politicians within the alliance.

When he arrived by train in the early hours of Monday morning on 7 September, a ceasefire was in place between Ukraine and Russia due to the presence of a US peace envoy.

But when negotiators left at about lunchtime, the city came under heavy attack.

“When an air raid siren goes off, even if you’re in a meeting, you’ve just got to get to the nearest shelter,” he said.

“I’ve been in lots of conflict zones, in Kosovo, Bosnia and Iraq, and I’ve been in these situations before, and you’re mentally on edge the whole time.

“You don’t know if a missile is going to come down and bury you in an underground car park.”

Anderson’s family in South Shropshire, where he is the MP, knew little of his whereabouts as he was not allowed to carry personal technology in case it was tracked or traced.