Mr. Tony Connelly:

I do not detect any annoyance at EU level about Ireland's neutral position on Ukraine. We are not the only neutral or non-aligned country. There seems to be broad accommodation of the different views at EU level.

I was in Ukraine in November and interviewed Yuriy Sak who is the senior adviser to the Ukrainian Government on military and strategic issues. He made the point that if Ireland could send heavy weaponry, that would be great but that Ukraine also appreciated Ireland's position on the United Nation's Security Council in terms of refugees and generally supporting the Ukraine position at EU level. Ireland was only one of two western countries that called for Ukraine's accession candidate status to be granted back in May of last year. Ireland is asserting itself on that issue and perhaps making up for a lack of heavy weaponry. One certainly does not hear any commentary in Brussels about Ireland's neutrality on this issue.