Richard Boyd Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, People Before Profit Alliance) | Oireachtas source

We are opposing the Government's motion because it is adding dangerous fuel to a very dangerous fire that is engulfing Ukraine. We have put forward an alternative motion which is absolutely clear in saying that we oppose the Russian military incursion into Ukraine and that we do not accept the legitimacy of a referendum which took place at gunpoint. We agree with the Government on that but we do not agree with the entirely one-sided approach it has taken in this matter, which could and will fuel the conflict. The approach is giving succour on the one hand to the expansionist agenda of NATO, the EU and the US into eastern Europe and, on the other, to a dangerous coalition of the far right, neo-fascists and billionaire oligarchs who have been busy plundering the resources and the wealth of Ukraine since the break up of the former Soviet Union. Some of those oligarchs, including Rinat Akhmetov and Dmitry Firtash, initially supported Yanukovych but have now opportunistically switched over to the other side in order to further their own interests and garner favour from this dangerous, right-wing mob which is trying to manipulate the economic, social and political crisis in Ukraine. This has led, as others have said, to the Chief Rabbi in Kiev telling Jewish people that they had better leave the country for their own safety. It has also led to attacks on journalists who were critical of the Government line and so on. This is a dangerous situation.

Ukraine has long been at the cross roads of competing imperial interests and has suffered desperately as a result. It suffered at the hands of the Romanovs and became part of what was known as the prison house of nations in the interplay between the Russian and Austro-Hungarian empires. It was partitioned after the Russian revolution, suffered under the Hitler-Stalin pact with forced collectivisation under Stalin and 4 million Ukrainians were killed under the Nazis. It is worth remembering just how that history has polarised Ukrainian society. One hero for some in the east of Ukraine is a man called Bandera. He collaborated with the Nazis who were involved in the vicious killing of Ukrainians. The same man would be seen as a mortal threat to Russian speakers in other parts of Ukraine, most notably in Crimea. NATO and the EU are well aware of these dangers. Even Kissinger, of whom I am not a fan, has said that what is going on is dangerous and that NATO and the EU knew what they were doing in manipulating this situation, with the response from Russia being inevitable.

We are saying that the Government should be even-handed and neutral in this - say "Yes" to the right to self-determination of the Ukrainian people but "No" to the interference by NATO, the EU, the US or Russia in the internal affairs of the Ukrainian people.

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