Mr. Oleksandr Merezhko:

To tell the truth, the OSCE cannot do much. It cannot stop Russian aggression, unfortunately. I have spoken to its representatives, who cannot or do not want to expel Russia from the OSCE despite all its crimes. Unfortunately, the Russian aggression has shown the weakness of key international organisations such as the UN and the OSCE. They cannot do anything to stop Russia from committing crimes. This is the truth. After the defeat of Russia, we will have to raise the issue of changing the architecture of the international security system. We will have to overhaul the security system. I sometimes wonder why the OSCE even exists as it cannot do anything. Maybe it can adopt resolutions, but the decisions of the OSCE are taken by consensus and Russia can block such decisions or even resolutions. Russia cannot be expelled from the OSCE so what is the point of this organisation’s existence? I do not have the answer to that. The same is true of the UN, unfortunately. Russia took the place of the Soviet Union in the UN in violation of the UN Charter. It was a violation. It was a political but not a legal decision. According to the text of the UN Charter, the permanent members of the Security Council include the Soviet Union. There is no mention of Russia. In my view, in international law we should not recognise Russia as a member of the UN because it took the place of the Soviet Union in violation of the UN Charter. It should have applied. Russia and the Soviet Union are two different subjects of international law and two different states. It was a huge political mistake.

I wish to give an example of how the people of Ukraine are coping and have got used to living in the abnormal conditions of war. Kharkiv, which is 50 km from the Russian border, used to be a city of 2 million inhabitants. Now, instead of 2 million people, just 700,000 remain because of constant shelling and bombardments. People get used to the shelling. They repair and go back to their lives because they have no other choice. They do not want to leave their city. They want to continue to live there. Not many people can leave Kyiv, for example. I cannot imagine the humanitarian catastrophe if, God forbid, we will have to evacuate people. I cannot imagine how it could be done. That is why we need to do everything possible to prevent this humanitarian catastrophe from happening. Despite the blackouts, all of us living in Kyiv come up with our own ways to survive. I have two small children. My youngest daughter is one year old. She needs to have warm milk. We have no gas. During blackouts, my wife uses candles to warm the milk for our small daughter. Each person in Kyiv comes up with his or her own survival skills in these conditions.

We continue to do so but, again, we need Ireland's help. First, we need to stop the Russian aggression and war machine. Second, we need help with repairing our cities and infrastructure.