Richard Bruton (Dublin Bay North, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

It is impossible for us to fully understand the loss, grief, courage and defiance of the Ukrainian people. We can only stand in solidarity and stretch out the hand of friendship. It is a tribute to the Irish people that, up and down the country, that is being done. The stresses that is creating have been highlighted but the Government has responded quickly and with compassion to the challenges we face.

It is said that in war the first casualty is truth and there is no doubt that in the case of Russia that is so. Russia breached the Budapest memorandum which set out six obligations designed to protect the independent sovereignty and existing borders of Ukraine. Russia wantonly tore up that agreement by its invasion of Crimea. That invasion initiated Ukraine's interest in joining NATO. That had not been a commitment of Ukraine before that. The Russian action has humiliated many people in Europe who tried to hold out a hand of friendship and détente over many years.

The difficulties Russia faces are of its own making. However, we must find a way to talk to the Russian people about the challenges they now face. They are sending their young to die in a cause which is a vanity project for the ebbing career of an autocrat. Do they know the actions of their troops have forced half the children of Ukraine to abandon their homes? It is an extraordinary figure, barely equalled in countries like France during the Second World War. Do they know the toll of the war crimes being done in the name of the Russian people and for which there will be an account to be held? Sanctions are right but, in the long term, isolation of Russian people is not a sustainable answer. We must find a way to talk over the heads of the ambassadors and the Russian security system to ordinary Russians about the challenges the action of their leadership has created.

The free world has responded with much greater solidarity than anyone expected and it is to the credit of those involved. The world has been changed by this aggressive action and we need to look at the international organisations of which we are members to see whether they can respond more effectively. We must stop war crime tribunals and trials only being for those who are defeated. That has been, sadly, the pattern in the past. We must seek to find security guarantees that can stick for the Ukrainian people when these issues are finally resolved. We must find a way to move on from the UN's arrangements whereby the veto of one party can stop any effective action. We must insist on such a UN resolution before we become involved in any peacekeeping or peacemaking activity. The biggest test for us is sustaining our focus after the attention of the world's media has moved on. We need to sustain it because the world has decisively shifted to become a more dangerous place and we need as international politicians to respond to that greater danger.

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