Micheál Martin (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Deputy for raising this very grave issue. No one in this House or anywhere else should be under any illusions about the seriousness of the situation Europe and the world faces right now, this afternoon. Vladimir Putin, who is a bully and a thug, has unleashed an unprovoked and unjustifiable war on the people of Ukraine, committing war crimes in the process, as we are witnessing. As President Zelenskiy said most movingly to the European Parliament this morning, every day now in Ukraine is someone's last day. I was very struck both by the contribution he made there and, indeed, to the European Heads of State last Thursday at the European Council, when he said to us it might be the last day he would speak to us because he is number one on the list, along with his family.

It is difficult to comprehend. A week ago, it would have been unimaginable to see what we are witnessing now: a 40-mile-long convoy of Russian troops and heavy military equipment grinding their way towards Kyiv, where children and their families take shelter in the underground. Just hours ago, Liberty Square in Kharkiv was devastated by a missile strike. As President Zelenskiy said, it is a city where there are up to 20 universities and the area is frequented by thousands of young students in the full expression of freedom of choice, expression and so forth. Residential neighbourhoods in cities all over Ukraine, where ordinary, decent people were going about their normal lives, are today facing barrages of illegal cluster munitions, which we, well over a decade ago, worked as a country to ban in an international treaty. Caithimid deireadh a chur leis an gcogadh seo. Caithfidh Vladimir Putin deireadh a chur leis an bhforéigean agus leis na hionsaithe uafásacha ar leanaí na hÚcráine agus ar theaghlaigh éagsúla ar fud na hÚcráine because what we are witnessing is scarcely believable but it is very real for the people of Ukraine.

Our response, I agree, must, therefore, be unprecedented and it has been unprecedented. Over the past ten years, and certainly since 2014, I have been arguing and debating in this House about the consistent violation of Ukraine's territorial integrity by Russia. Now it has reached an appalling stage in terms of an all-out assault on Ukraine and the Ukrainian people and territory. Before leaving for Brussels last week for the emergency European Council, I said I wanted to see the most comprehensive and widest set of sanctions deployed by the European Union. That has happened in respect of the sanctions that have now been put in place by the EU, along with the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, Japan and others. I have been very heartened by the unprecedented commitment to humanitarian care and support for Ukrainians. I believe the European Union genuinely has responded with absolute solidarity with Ukraine and with absolute speed in its response in terms of the unprecedented scale of sanctions that have been deployed, in particular, the sanctions against the Central Bank of Russia in terms of it not being in a position to access its European and foreign reserves, Russian banks being locked out of the SWIFT mechanism, the listing of key individuals who are part of the coterie of leadership around Vladimir Putin and much more in terms of the industrial base of Russia.

It is an extraordinary package of sanctions that people did not believe would happen. Ireland did not hesitate to facilitate the deployment of the European peace facility and €500 million to assist people in Ukraine, Ireland's support being in terms of non-lethal weapons.

The biggest challenge facing the country is that we must be very, very generous in the refugee crisis that will undoubtedly flow as a result of this war. It will be beyond anything we have comprehended before. I have said to my colleagues in government and the Departments that we must put to one side what we might have considered to be the norms in responding in a humanitarian way to the plight of the Ukrainian people. The Secretary General of my Department is convening with other Secretaries General and Government Ministers to make sure we scale up the response in the context of the humanitarian crisis that is unfolding before our eyes.

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