John McGahon (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

The drums of war are beating across the European continent once again. Death stalks the land once again and things will be totally and utterly different from now on. Things will not be the same as they were just a number of weeks ago. There can be absolutely no legitimate return for Vladimir Putin to the world of political respectability after this is finished. He must be treated as an outcast and he must be confined to the same depths of depravity as the other dictators who haunt our history. An attack on a democratic and sovereign nation is an attack on all of us. It is an attack on everybody who believes in freedom and the democratic right of a nation to set and chart its own course.

Ukraine cannot be left orphaned by the West.That is why I believe that in the short to medium term, we should be seriously considering and supporting its accession to the EU. We should also be supporting its application to join NATO. I have seen some of the comments about NATO warmongering and aggression. God forbid that small countries on the doorstep of a sleeping Russian giant want to come together and have a bit of shared, joint protection in the face of unwarranted Russian aggression. The events of the last few days have certainly proven that. Indeed, over the course of the last week, Putin has fostered more unity among the democratic nations of the world than in the last 20 years. His legacy on Ukraine will not be the legacy that he determined. His legacy will be a more united and stronger European Union and international community. That is what his legacy will be after his attack on Ukraine. There can be no complacency when it comes to Russia from now on. It has shown its hand. Putin has been backed into a corner, and he is perhaps more dangerous than ever before because he has been backed into such a corner by the international community. I believe the reason that this is happening is because Putin cannot let Ukraine be a success story on his doorstep. He cannot let Ukraine be a democratic success story. The one way he will be toppled in his own country is when the Russian people start to notice that a country like Ukraine is having free democratic elections and ask why Russia cannot do the same. That is why Putin is in Ukraine today. He is there to protect his own political capability in Russia. We, and the world, must stand up to his aggression.