Simon Harris (Wicklow, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank Deputy Ó Laoghaire and he is entirely right. Calls for a ceasefire are being undermined by one party and that party is the aggressor. It is Putin and Russia. There are two presidents involved in this; President Zelenskyy has said he will accept without precondition a 30-day ceasefire to try to get into a process to bring about a lasting and enduring just peace. As recently as today, Putin continues to bomb civilian infrastructure, energy grids and ports. He continues to say this does not work for us and we need clarity.

There is a lot of talk about peace. On all sides of this House, we all want peace. Nobody wants peace more than the people of Ukraine and the Government of Ukraine. We are not seeing much by way of intent around peace from Putin yet. Obviously, the Taoiseach and I, as well as other members of the Government, regularly engage on the issue of Ukraine with European leaders at the European Council and the Foreign Affairs Council, together with whom we remain committed to working with Ukraine to achieve that comprehensive, just and lasting peace.

I attended the Munich Security Conference recently, where we discussed global responses to major foreign and security policy issues. I met the Ukrainian foreign minister and that foreign minister also regularly joins the monthly meeting of the Foreign Affairs Council by video conference to update us on the situation. I also had engagement on the issue of Ukraine at the G20 meeting in Johannesburg. On 27 February, the Taoiseach met President Zelenskyy during his stopover in Shannon Airport and further met him, alongside fellow EU leaders, at the European Councils on 6 and 20 March. The Taoiseach was also in Paris for the leaders' meeting on security and defence on 27 March, which President Zelenskyy was at. On 24 February, a resolution on an early and just peace, tabled by Ukraine and co-sponsored by Ireland, was adopted at the UN General Assembly and the Minister for Justice, Deputy O'Callaghan, addressed the assembly calling for a peace that respects the UN Charter and he spoke to the deputy foreign minister of Ukraine to convey Ireland's support.

I remain deeply concerned about the situation on the ground in Ukraine, where we see that Russia is demonstrating a clear desire to continue escalation while pretending to be interested in peace.

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