Deputy Richard Boyd Barrett said “It is approaching four years since Putin began his brutal invasion of Ukraine. We continue to stand with the people of Ukraine against Russia's invasion and we reassert the right to self determination for the Ukrainian people and minority groups. Putin should get out of Ukraine and allow the Ukrainian people to decide their own future.
“However, we have always rejected the idea that there is a military solution to this conflict and opposed the calls for military escalation. As we had feared and warned, Ukraine has also become a bloody battlefield in an inter-imperial conflict between Russia, the US, EU and NATO powers, all of whom are trying to consolidate or expand spheres of influence. It is estimated that over 300,000 people have been killed during the war and this terrible death toll has not brought the situation one step closer to a just peace.
“We support an immediate ceasefire and reject efforts to put any conditions on such a ceasefire and also reject attempts by the imperial powers to carve up Ukrainian territory, strip Ukraine’s assets or gain control of its resources for their own corporations.
“We also strongly reject the systematic efforts by our government and the EU to use this conflict to promote the project of EU militarisation or draw us closer to the NATO military alliance - an alliance that is dominated by powers that are up to their necks in arming the Israeli genocide in Palestine and have along history of warmongering and militarism.
“As a neutral country, we should be using our unique heritage and position to argue for non-military solutions to this terrible war and to militarisation more generally”.
Deputy Paul Murphy said, “It is very clear that this and the previous Government have been cynical in using the war in Ukraine to further undermine Irish neutrality and back EU militarisation. We have no doubt the Government is using President Zelensky’s visit to these same ends. Only today we learned that the Government is to give a further €100m in military supplies to continue the war. This is yet another flagrant breach of our neutrality.
“This ramping up of military supplies comes as the Government has imposed cruel cuts on disabled people, refuses to invest in solving the housing crisis, and is cutting state-provided accommodation to newly arriving Ukrainian refugees fleeing the war from 90 to just 30 days. It appears the Government and many in the EU are prepared to back war to the last Ukrainian, but will force Ukrainians into abject poverty if they flee the war.
“All this is happening too as the Government continues to delay the Occupied Territories Bill and diverts from any progress towards sanctions on Israel. The Irish Government’s pro-Ukraine rhetoric rings very hollow.
"The rank hypocrisy of the war-mongering, the attacks on Ukrainian refugees fleeing the war, and the refusal to take any meaningful action against Israel has become evident to everyone.
“We stand with the people of Ukraine against Putin’s invasion, but we will not applaud the agenda of militarisation which is being pushed across Europe”.