Mick Wallace (Wexford, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I have no time for Mr. Putin. I find him as abnoxious as his US counterpart. They behave similarly. For the US Secretary of State, John Kerry, to say that in the 21st century one does not invade a country on a completely trumped up pretext is bordering on the ridiculous.

This from a country which launched the greatest act of unprovoked aggression in modern history - on a trumped-up pretext – against Iraq in the form of an illegal war now estimated to have killed 500,000, along with the invasion of Afghanistan, the bloody regime change in Libya and the killing of thousands in drone attacks on Pakistan, Yemen and Somalia, all without UN authorisation. It is absurd that the Americans are carrying on as they are at present and it is extremely difficult to listen to what they have to say.

The US and European powers openly sponsored the protests to oust the corrupt but elected Government of Yanukovych, which were triggered by controversy over an all-or-nothing EU agreement that would have excluded economic association with Russia. At present, fascist gangs are patrolling the streets of Ukraine. However, their members are also in Kiev's corridors of power. The far right Svoboda party, whose leader has denounced the "criminal activities" of "organised Jewry" and which has been condemned by the European Parliament for its racist and anti-Semitic views, has five ministerial posts in the new Government, including those of Deputy Prime Minister and Prosecutor General. The leader of the even more extreme Right Sector, which was at the heart of the street violence, is now Ukraine's deputy national security chief. Neo-Nazis in office is a first in post-war Europe. However, this is the unelected Government now backed by the US and EU. In a contemptuous rebuff to ordinary Ukrainians who protested against corruption and hoped for real change, the new Administration has appointed two billionaire oligarchs – one of whom runs his business from Switzerland – to be the new governors of the eastern cities of Donetsk and Dnepropetrovsk. Meanwhile, the IMF is preparing an eye-watering austerity plan for the tanking Ukrainian economy which can only swell poverty and unemployment.

It beggars belief that Ireland could adopt the position it has taken in respect of this matter. Yesterday I read a pamphlet produced by a Ukrainian female writer who has no sympathy for either side but who is saddened by her people's fate. Her wish is that the Russians, the EU and the US should leave Ukraine alone. What is being done in Ukraine is simply another economic carve-up. The Ukrainians are the only ones who are going to suffer as a result of it. Those in government here and across the EU want to be able to pick sides and to decide who are the "goodies" and who are the "baddies". Two groups of oligarchs are fighting for control of Ukraine and Russia, the EU and the US have all become involved and are making matters worse. Ukraine is in for a hard time from those on both sides.

The European People's Party held a forum in Dublin last week at which Yulia Tymoshenko was present. That one is as big a gangster as Yanukovych. She was arrested in 1995 for currency smuggling.

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