Mr. Oleksandr Merezhko:

Dear friends, it is a great pleasure to see and talk to you, especially in these difficult and crucial times in our history and the history of Ukraine. I recall with great warmth the visit here recently, which was friendly and warm. I appreciate that the colleagues of committee members came to support us in our darkest hour. The situation in Ukraine is very difficult. We continue our struggle despite the fact that on the ground we are outgunned and outnumbered by the evil empire, Russia, which is trying to destroy us. Russia's ultimate goal is to erase Ukraine from the political map.

I also wish to express my deepest gratitude to members and their colleagues for Ireland's support for Ukraine's candidacy for the European Union. To us, Ireland plays the role of advocate, strong supporter and ally. We really appreciate Ireland's help and support. We feel it. When the Irish representatives came to Kyiv. they mentioned the phrase by the American President John F. Kennedy who, in 1963 addressed the Irish Parliament and said that countries should not be neutral when there is a struggle between liberty and tyranny. I see that Ireland is not neutral. Ireland is on the side of liberty, freedom, and understands that Ukraine nowadays is defending not only itself but the freedom and democracy of all of Europe. Russia openly states that it is waging war not only against Ukraine but against the West. For instance Russia's foreign minister, Sergey Lavrov, said this openly. Russia perceives this aggressive war as a war against the whole of Western civilisation and democracy. Russia is waging war in the territory of Ukraine but at the same time, it is waging war in a hybrid manner against all democratic states of Europe and global democracies. I would like to thank Ireland again for its support of our EU candidacy because it is extremely important for us. For us it is also a matter of our security. We made a choice to become part of the European Union and we are paying a very heavy price.

We have already paid a heavy price. Russia wants to subjugate Ukraine because we want to be part of the European Union. It is one of the primary reasons for the war raged by Russia against Ukraine. We want to be part of Europe. I ask Ireland to continue to be our advocate and supporter on our road to fully fledged membership of the European Union. I understand it might be a difficult road. We are committed to reforms and we are conducting reforms in Ukraine. We are conducting them in the very difficult conditions of war. You can imagine how difficult it is to conduct economic and political reform when you are fighting for your survival, struggling to survive. Nevertheless this is what we are doing and we hope you can help us make this way to membership as short as possible. It will help us a lot and I am sure it will allow us to defend ourselves more effectively and to stop Russian aggression. Being a part of the European Union, being part of this space of freedom, democracy, economic development and prosperity will help because behind each member state is the collective force of the full Union. There is collective solidarity and this is one of the reasons why we want to join the European Union as soon as possible. I ask you to please continue to support us.

The second thing I would like to mention is that two days ago, Russia hit a civilian residential area in Kyiv, which is not far from where I am. I was awoken by the sound of explosions at 6 a.m. and then I started to count the explosions. There was a very strong second explosion and then a third and a fourth. Later, I realised from the news that there were people injured and one person killed in the residential house hit by Russians. This house is basically on the same street as I live on, downtown and very close to my place. Yesterday we had another horrendous, disgraceful and absolutely inhumane act of state terror when Russian missiles hit a shopping mall in Kremenchuk. We are still counting the dead. We already know several dozen people were killed and many, including children, were injured. I would like to mention that since 24 February, Russian forces have already killed 340 children. This means that each day since then, Russia has killed several Ukrainian children. This horror can not be described in words. I ask your Parliament to adopt a resolution to recognise Russia as a terrorist state. Russia is not waging war against the Ukrainian army, it is waging war against the Ukrainian civilian population. It is deliberately targeting civilian objects and civilians and this is happening every day. According to the office of our general prosecutor, Russia commits several thousand war crimes every day. Russia not only commits crimes like war crimes and crimes against humanity, but general overarching crime which also includes genocide against Ukraine. We are grateful for recognition of Russian crimes as genocide. It is important because it is the truth and it should be known all over the world. In the near future, the State Department in the United States will decide on whether to recognise Russia as a sponsor of terrorism. It is important in terms of sanctions and I ask my Irish colleagues and friends to support and to help to persuade our American friends to do this as soon as possible.

My final point is that we need to continue to make sanctions tougher in order to stop Russian aggression. We also need to introduce so-called secondary sanctions against those countries which are trying to help Russia right now to avoid sanctions. I ask that Ireland continues to support us. I thank the committee members for their attention.