Gerard Craughwell (Independent) | Oireachtas source

The ambassador is very welcome. I thank her for her presentation. How successful does she think sanctions would be if there were an invasion? Does she think the Russians would pull out because of sanctions, or would they just ignore them?

My colleague mentioned the use of mercenaries. It is the case that militia have been set up in Ukraine and local citizens have trained in the use of weapons. How concerned is the ambassador that one of these militia groups might do something on its own and that they are not being controlled by the military forces? We can all think back to the start of the First World War and the single shot that caused it.

The report that was mentioned yesterday on RTÉ radio spoke of Ukrainian citizens being equally comfortable speaking Russian or Ukrainian and that they are quite proud of their use of the Russian language.

Does the pride in the use of language also call into question the commitment to Ukraine as a state?

Deputy Brady and Senator O'Reilly mentioned the talking-up of the problem between Ukraine and Russia by western powers such as the UK and the USA yet the President of Ukraine is constantly talking things down and speaking about calming down the situation. Have there been discussions with the United States and the UK to ask them to tone down the rhetoric to see if we can find a diplomatic solution? I will take no more of the ambassador's time. She made an excellent presentation and we got some wonderful answers. I thank her.