Martin Kenny (Sligo-Leitrim, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the Ukrainian ambassador. The situation developing in Ukraine is very troubling and worrying for people everywhere. Certainly here in Ireland, we have had our share of conflict and violence not just for decades but for centuries. All of that comes from the notion of imperial power and what that has done. We remember 1917, the Russian Revolution and the fall of an empire at that time. The end of the First World War came on the back of that. What has happened since then and the disintegration of the communist regimes across Europe and Russia is that we have seen the establishment in Russia of what is, in effect, another imperialist regime. That sense of Putin and his regime is very much one where might is right at all times. That is very dangerous and troubling and is at the core of this difficulty we now have.

What happened on Monday evening was clearly a situation where Russia decided it would invade a part of Ukraine, and possibly all of Ukraine. If you invade part of a country, you have invaded all of it. The integrity of a nation includes all of its borders and territorial waters. That is the situation we see. This excuse that these two regions are somehow or other separate or are their own entity and that Russia is in there to protect them is clearly an excuse for an invasion, and all of us can see that. Our discussion is about security in Europe and that aggression is troubling not just for Ukraine. It is troubling for all the countries around Ukraine, for the entire region and Continent and, indeed, for the entire world. We cannot continue in a situation where this notion of might is right can become a dominant feature in international politics. That needs to end and needs to change. We certainly had hoped that we had left those attitudes in our colonial and imperialist past, that we had moved into a new era, and that the United Nations and the sense of co-operation and nations working together for the greater good of humanity was the way forward. That is certainly the way we intend to continue in spite of what others may do and in spite of whatever intentions Putin and his regime may have. We still need to get back down to the fact we need have the means of addressing these issues through dialogue and diplomacy. When a conflict breaks out and people are hurt, injured and killed and there is terrible dismay and mayhem, at the end of it all you go back to negotiations and talks to work out a solution.

What we need to do is to apply as much pressure as possible to work out that solution now and to put the diplomacy in place to do that. We certainly will support the Irish Government and all the other governments of Europe to try to do that. If a motion comes before the House, I am sure it will have the support of all parties to deliver that message strongly to the European Union and our colleagues in Ukraine that we stand with them in this hour of need.

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