Simon Coveney (Cork South Central, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

My focus is to do everything we can as a country and as a member of the European Union to bring this war to an end and to promote democracy in Belarus to ensure that the people there get the government and the president they elect, as opposed to skewed election results. The only tools we have available to us for doing that for now are sanctions. Belarus is so reliant on Russia now for its security that, unfortunately, the current Belarusian regime is shackled to the decisions of the Kremlin. We have to treat both in the context of the deterrents we are putting in place for the continuation of this war. It is to be hoped we can move beyond that in time when this war comes to an end, but for now the focus has got to be on ending the violence and brutality we see in Ukraine, which has to a certain extent been facilitated through Belarus.

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