Rushcliffe MP Ruth Edwards has urged communities to step forward and support the victims of the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
Ruth said it was ‘easy to look at such darkness and such evil and to feel powerless to do anything to stop it.’
But she said people could help in many different ways to make a real difference.
She was speaking at a “Concert for Ukraine”, held over the weekend in Keyworth, near Nottingham.
The concert, given by the Keyworth Guitar Club and the village’s choir, raised more than £1,800 for the Disasters Emergency Committee Ukraine Humanitarian Appeal.
Among those performing were busker Brian Lund, who’s raised thousands of pounds for charity, in recent years, and the former Nottingham Forest player and manager, Frank Clark.
The concert began with children from the Ukrainian Cultural Centre in Nottingham, wearing traditional dress, singing the Ukrainian national anthem. Everyone in the packed village hall in Keyworth rose to their feet as a mark of respect.
Chris Mills, who organized the event, with a team of helpers, said he was amazed by the generosity of the people of Keyworth, he said: “I never expected to raise anywhere near this sum.”
Ruth Edwards said she’d been shocked by the sight of Russian tanks crossing the Ukrainian frontier, attacking a free, peaceful, sovereign democratic country.
She said everyone had been stunned by “the horrendous, unimaginable images that stared up at us from our newspapers and TV screens; images of terrible brutality and suffering”.
“That’s why,” she said, “the international community has come together, in the way that it has, to ostracize Putin and his regime.”
• How to donate or help in Rushcliffe to support Ukraine
• March in solidarity for the people of Ukraine in West Bridgford
