THE Ukrainian MP who said she will shoot to kill after the Russian invasion is on the panel as BBC Question Time airs on Thursday night.

Fiona Bruce will once again chair the flagship political show which is being beamed from Kettering, Northamptonshire.

With the Ukraine invasion the main talking point, we look at who is on the panel this week.

Lesia Vasylenko, member of the Ukrainian Parliament and co-chair of the UK-Ukrainian Friendship Group.

The mother-of-three — an eight-year-old, a six-year-old and a nine-month-old — is human rights lawyer who studied at University College London and is the daughter of Volodymyr Vasylenko, the former Ukrainian ambassador to the UK.

Her father-in-law taught her how to fire a Kalashnikov and showed her how to load the bullets into a semi-automatic pistol.

“To use a real gun is something that came as a surprise to many of us,” she said. “You have to have a lot of strength in your fingers to be able to use it properly. It took me a while to get used to that.”

If it comes to it, she believes that she will be able to shoot to kill. “At the point where there is imminent danger then yes — you do not think," she said.

She has posted photographs of children killed in the war on Twitter: eight-year-old Tanya, who died of dehydration in Mariupol; six-year-old Sofiyka, shot with her baby brother in a car; and the bloodied body of a boy in a T-shirt.

She was elected in 2019 for the liberal Holos party and is part of the opposition in the Ukrainian parliament but all MPs are now behind President Zelenskyy.

When Vasylenko was given the weapon in her hand to defend herself and her country against the Russian army, she realized she had to cut her long and beautiful nails.

"It was like a tragedy for me, because I fought for 34 years of my life the habit of eating nails. I was so proud that I finally managed to break that habit and managed to grow my nails. Then the universe said 'no' to me through Vladimir Putin, who decided to attack my country. "I had to take a gun and to be able to use it I had to cut my nails," she says.

 

Suella Braverman MP, attorney general for England and Wales and advocate general for Northern Ireland, Conservative.

The Attorney General has vowed to put Russian soldiers found guilty of war crimes in Ukraine behind bars.

Since Russia's invasion of Ukraine, which began on February 24, there have been accusations of Putin's army breaking the Geneva Conventions - a set of treaties that lays out rules for how civilians and prisoners of war must be treated during conflict.

The US ambassador to the United Nations Linda Thomas-Greenfield has already claimed that Russia has committed war crimes, after the of bombing a maternity hospital in Mariupol.

The Herald: Attorney General Suella Braverman arrives in Downing Street, London, ahead of the government's weekly Cabinet meeting. Picture date: Tuesday December 7, 2021..

Ms Braverman said: "Russia's crimes might be tried in the courtrooms of Kyiv, The Hague or even in the UK; but whatever the forum, it is critical to gather the evidence now... The evidence is there, the world can see it accruing. Our job now is to collect it, preserve it and use it when the moment comes."

She went on to say that the Metropolitan Police have issued a call for evidence from anyone in the UK who may have direct evidence of war crimes in Ukraine.

 

Wes Streeting MP, shadow health secretary.

The Labour frontbencher sparked fury three weeks ago after comparing Boris Johnson to serial killer Harold Shipman.

He apologise for remarks shouted across the Commons when the Prime Minister swept away England's Covid rules.

Instead, the Prime Minister told MPs there would be an emphasis on individual personal responsibility to prevent the spread of the virus.

The Herald: Ilford North MP Wes Streeting.

In remarks slightly audible on the chamber's microphones, Mr Streeting took aim at Mr Johnson's Partygate travails and other personal crises he is facing.

He admitted that he said: "Lectures from you [Boris Johnson] on personal responsibility? What next? Harold Shipman on medical ethics?"

Shipman was a GP in Hyde in Greater Manchester who is believed to be one of history's most prolific serial killers.

The Labour MP for Ilford North, a rising star in Sir Keir Starmer's shadow cabinet, later said: "I accept this wasn't in good taste, so I'm sorry for that."

 

Rev Richard Coles, Church of England parish priest, musician and Radio 4 presenter.

Rev Coles revealed he's retiring in April, two years after the death of his partner Rev David Coles from alcohol addiction.

The 59-year-old told his 448,000 Twitter followers in January that he was getting '#demob' ahead of stopping parish duties in the spring.

The Herald: Rev Richard Coles at the launch of Strictly Come Dancing 2017

Rev Coles lost his partner David, who he wed in 2010, to alcoholism in December 2019, and later wrote a memoir, The Madness of Grief, about living with someone in the grips of alcohol addiction - and the 'paralysing' period of sadness that followed.

The 59-year-old, who shot to fame in his twenties as one half of pop band The Communards with Jimmy Somerville, has continued to enjoy life in the public eye, appearing on shows including The Chase and Strictly Come Dancing.

In December, the priest won BBC One's Celebrity MasterChef Christmas Cook-Off.

 

Max Hastings, historian and former editor of The Daily Telegraph.

The journalist who worked as a foreign correspondent for the BBC, was editor-in-chief of The Daily Telegraph, and editor of the Evening Standard has said in recent column that we must bargain with Putin.

The author of numerous books, chiefly on defence matters, which have won several major awards says that the only realistic hope is for a deal with Moscow, in which painful concessions will have to be made.

The Herald: Max Hastings is among those on the right who believe air strikes will not help defeat Daesh

"It is harder today to strike a bargain with a posturing Putin, because he appears more remote from reality, than with a frightened Khrushchev 60 years ago. There is also less chance that the new tsar will honour any agreement. Yet the attempt must be made because Putin has shown himself skilled in harnessing to his troika the Russian people’s fantasies of grievance and victimhood," he says.