Seán Haughey (Dublin Bay North, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I wish to acknowledge the presence of the Ukrainian ambassador to Ireland and to express the solidarity of the Fianna Fáil party with her and her people at this time, as I am sure the Minister of State has done already.It has come to pass, after months of speculation, that Russia has moved on Ukraine. As we were warned all along, a pretext was engineered to give cover to Russia to recognise two breakaway regions, Donetsk and Luhansk, as independent states and to send in troops to be so-called peacekeepers. There was increased shelling in the area and a plea for intervention by the pro-Russian leaders of both regions. That was the pretext. We must assume that this is just the start of it and that a full-scale invasion and annexation of Ukraine is still a real possibility. This is a serious violation of international law. It is an attack on the territorial integrity of Ukraine and it casts aside the Minsk agreements.

We need to examine what Russia has been up to immediately prior to the events of this week and also in recent years. They say that the first casualty of war is the truth. The Russians are certainly masters of propaganda. In the past few weeks, Russia has been rubbishing claims that it was about to invade Ukraine. It even accused western countries of being warmongers and of being the aggressor in respect of these tensions. What are we to make of these statements now? What has Russia been doing in recent years? It annexed Crimea in 2014. It gave its backing to the Lukashenko regime in Belarus, which has engaged in all sorts of hostile acts against the EU, and tramples on fundamental rights. In 2018, there was the novichok nerve attack in Salisbury. We must also look at how the Opposition leader, Alexei Navalny, has been treated. Russia is closely linked to cyberattacks on several EU countries.

In a debate in the Dáil on 26 June 2019, the then leader of the Opposition and current Taoiseach, Deputy Micheál Martin, stated:

Yet again there have been attempts by one country to promote division, undermine the European Union and support extremists, primarily on the right but also on the left in some countries.

He was, of course, referring to Russia, which utilised social networking platforms to peddle misinformation and engage in election interference, or information manipulation, as it were.

Russia considers the spread of liberal democratic values to be its biggest threat and has a major policy objective of undermining the EU. We all need to be aware of this. The stark reality is that just 6% of the world's population live in fully fledged democracies and that democracy is stagnant or in decline in many countries. This is something of which we need to be conscious, as well as the role Russia is playing in this regard.

Ireland has clearly stated that we fully support Ukrainian sovereignty and territorial integrity and its right to choose its own foreign and security policy, and rightly so. It certainly seems negotiation and diplomacy in this case have failed, at least so far. I think in particular of the interventions by the French President, Emmanuel Macron, and the German Chancellor, Olaf Scholz, through the Normandy process. Ireland should continue to press for a de-escalation and a diplomatic solution through our participation on the UN Security Council and at European Council meetings. This is our role in international affairs.

Of course, there must be sanctions too. I welcome the sanctions proposed by the EU to date. They are proportionate, but an increased package of sanctions on the Russian economy and individuals should also be imposed in the event of a full-scale invasion of Ukraine. These sanctions will impact on the Irish economy and the EU economy as a whole; let us make no mistake about that. It is significant that Germany has just cancelled the Nord Stream 2 gas project in response. I know work is continuing on assessing the exposure of the Irish economy in the context of these sanctions. They will hurt certain sectors and energy prices are sure to rise, but we have no choice. We have to do the right thing. We have to show solidarity and ask the question, "What price democracy?". I welcome the fact the EU has given a financial package to Ukraine of €1.2 billion. Again, that is a show of solidarity by Europe and the EU in respect of our European neighbour.

At the end of the day, as other speakers have stated, what we are looking at here is the potential for massive loss of life in the event of a full-scale invasion. As the Minister stated earlier, there has been loss of life already. That must be our primary concern. Loss of life on the scale that would come about in the event of a full-scale invasion must be avoided. War is not nice - far from it. I reiterate the need to show solidarity with our Ukrainian neighbours at this time.

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