Mr. Dmytro Shchedrin:

As mentioned by Deputy Brady, one cannot fully trust the information one hears from the Russians. They are overestimating their victories and underestimating their losses.

Some 2.5% of a decline is still a decline and is something that Russia is not proud about, as one of the most powerful economies, according to its own description of itself. It is feeling the pressure. Russia is quite inventive in circumventing the sanctions. They use other countries to import those products they need, including those products that might be used in the manufacturing of drones and missiles, if one is talking about electronics. This is something we should work on.

We should definitely leave the current level of sanctions in place and should never think about losing this grip, but, as the ambassador mentioned, we should even push for more. We should implement more sanctions and especially those secondary sanctions on the companies and individuals who will do whatever it takes to circumvent the sanctions that are in place. I would second the ambassador’s comments in saying that sanctions are working. We should take the numbers we are getting from Russia with a pinch, if not a bag, of salt and keep the sanctions in place. We have a great team working in Ukraine, together with our European and American partners, on identifying the individuals and companies that need to be sanctioned. This is where we need Ireland’s support as part of the EU to keep them going.