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

I did not interrupt Deputy Boyd Barrett. He should have the decency to allow me to make a reply. The Deputy has just asserted in a distorted manner the idea that NATO wants to escalate the war on Ukraine to a nuclear status. That is a disgraceful and wrong thing to say. Germany is in NATO. France is in NATO. They did everything they could to persuade Putin not to launch that war. They were lampooned by some for endeavouring to persuade Putin not to launch that war. Why does the Deputy not accept that reality? I have been at meetings where we have been briefed on the dangers in Zaporizhzhia where Ukrainian citizens are surrounded by Russian troops, where there is shelling in its proximity and where, internationally, we have supported moves to create a safe zone around it, notwithstanding Ukrainian sovereignty. The safe zone was to protect and to ensure the avoidance of any untoward event happening in that particular nuclear plant.

German Chancellor Scholz went to China to meet with the Chinese President. Why? It was to get China to articulate unequivocally the need not to use nuclear weapons in Ukraine. Such a statement did emanate from the Chinese authorities to the effect that there should be no nuclear dimension to this war and Russia should not use nuclear weapons. Russia has been the only country that has hinted and implied the use of nuclear weapons in the context of this war. Why? It is because Russia is playing on rational minds. The President of the United States is such a rational mind. He understands the danger of this war and how it can spill over. He understands the line he has to navigate between trying to stop this war and stop Putin’s shocking attack on civilians in Ukraine. Day and night, we all see the bombing of civil infrastructure, energy plants and apartment blocks. Ukrainians have a right to self defence under the UN Charter. We can help with our 30 personnel - that is all - to deal with de-mining. It is only training, on European soil, to help them to deal with medical situations within Ukraine. We know that cluster munitions, which Russia has used, can cause extraordinary damage after an attack, when children go out to play and have limbs amputated-----

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