Alan Farrell (Dublin Fingal, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the opportunity to mark the second anniversary of the invasion of Ukraine by the Russian Federation. I would like to take this opportunity to welcome the Ukrainian ambassador, Larysa Gerasko. I thank her for her presence here and for her significant contribution to keeping this issue on the agenda of many of my colleagues and of the Government. It is critically important that we continue to support the people of Ukraine as best we can.

There is no doubt that Vladimir Putin and his administration pose a direct threat not just to Ireland but to the entire European Continent and, indeed, the globe. That is abundantly clear from his actions and that of his military over the past two years. If his military machine is allowed to win, what is next? Who is next? Those are stark warnings to our European colleagues and indeed to countries across the globe that contribute to Ukraine’s defence effort.

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We may be a neutral nation, but as the Taoiseach, the Tánaiste and many others have said, we are not neutral when it comes to our abhorrence for war, warmongering and the murder of civilians, be that in Ukraine or Israel or the occupied territories. I am glad Deputy Gannon mentioned places like Mariupol, which horrified the world. The events of the last two years make us think back to the events of both the Second World War and in Ukraine’s context a number of events that occurred just before it, where millions of their countrymen and women were effectively murdered by a different regime, but a Russian one nonetheless.

Colleagues across European parliaments I have visited and the European Parliament itself are acutely aware that giving in to Russian aggression will amount to support of Russian aggression, which in itself cannot be allowed to stand. That is the position of the European Union and has been shown in attempts to influence our partners across the world, up to and including other countries that might not necessarily be those that would step forward quite quickly, such as India for instance, which introduced sanctions, thus bringing greater pressure on the Russian Government.

There are some stark figures we must consider from the past two years. According to US defence officials, an estimated 315,000 Russian soldiers have either been injured or killed and the number of those killed or injured on both sides from a military perspective amounts to over half a million. It is exceedingly difficult, of course, to get the number of individual citizens of Ukraine and other states who have been murdered by Russian soldiers, but one would have to assume it is in the tens of thousands. It is for those individuals, and indeed for those remaining in Ukraine, that we must redouble our efforts to put the necessary pressure on the Russian Federation to stop this pointless failure of a military campaign, given we are led to believe somewhere between 15% and 20% of Ukraine is occupied after two years, with no sign, frankly, of that territory increasing. What was labelled a quick offensive has started to look decidedly like a conflict that will end up like so many others in former Soviet republics, namely, as a frozen conflict, a war between neighbours over artificial boundaries. However, there are no artificial boundaries when it comes to the sovereign territory of Ukraine and therefore Russian must stop this pointless act of self-sabotage, withdraw its forces and restore the territorial integrity of Ukraine. We have unfortunately seen a significant rise in the number of civilian casualties in Ukraine, with the UN reporting in January there had been a 37% increase compared with November 2023. That is of course due to widespread missile and drone attacks on urban areas and urban communities, which are unacceptable in themselves.

It is very obvious that Putin and his proponents are assuming that fatigue will set in among the western nations and that they can sow division on the issue and weaken western resolve. While there may be some issues in the United States especially, I note that the European Continent has provided double the financial and military support to Ukraine over that of our American counterparts and that should not be forgotten because defence for Ukraine is defence of Europe and that in itself is important. I am not a warmonger, I am not somebody who advocates war, and I am not somebody who advocates a change to our policies at all – quite the opposite. I consider myself to be a pacifist, but one must defend oneself. I do not think there is any question that if we were invaded on foot the people would respond on foot. If a country is invaded and it has an army, it will respond with an army. That is important from the perspective of Ukraine.

Some very interesting figures were released today by the Central Statistics Office, showing that just under 105,000 Ukrainians have sought shelter on our shores under the temporary protection directive since March 2022. I have welcomed quite a few of them personally. Women aged over 20 make up 46% of those who have arrived while 31% are children. Some 41,000 of those who have made Ireland their home have engaged with employment support arranged by Intreo, while a further 17,000 have engaged in further education and training. Those are fantastic statistics and show the people who have had to come to these shores are genuinely trying to better themselves through education, but also by taking up employment. They are not here for fun - that is very obvious – and therefore, they should be commended on trying to make Ireland their home even if it is on a temporary basis until peace is restored in Ukraine. It is important that we redouble our efforts to work with our allies to ensure that stability is restored and that we as a state do all we can to provide non-lethal support to Ukraine and her people. I certainly stand foursquare with them in that policy. It is not an easy task and I have no doubt the prospect of a continuation of this conflict is extremely troubling to every citizen of Ukraine, but Ireland will continue to play its part in supporting them and I will certainly endeavour to do so.

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