Mary Lou McDonald (Dublin Central, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

Ba mhaith liom mo bhuíochas a ghabháil leis an Uachtarán Zelenskyy as ucht a óráid ar maidin. I want to extend our deep appreciation and gratitude to President Zelenskyy for his address on this historic day. I want to acknowledge the presence of the diplomatic corps, but in particular, our friend, Ambassador Gerasko, and her staff. I want to pay them a particular commendation for their work in these very trying times.

We have heard directly from President Zelenskyy, in the rawest, most harrowing and heartbreaking of terms, testimony of the vicious war crimes committed by the Russian military in Ukraine. We have been set a challenge. Innocent civilians have been executed with their arms tied behind their backs. There have been horrific accounts of rape and torture and the brutalisation by the powerful of vulnerable ordinary citizens in their war-torn country. These are crime against the Ukrainian people and these are crimes against humanity. Russia must be held accountable for its barbarism, and justice must be done. These human rights violations and grave breaches of the Geneva Convention demand investigation by the International Criminal Court and prosecutions to follow. The truth is that Russia has turned its back on dialogue and peace. For 42 days and nights, it has chosen war. It has chosen brutality. It has chosen the violation of international law. Russia has closed the door on dialogue and through its criminal actions it has thus far rejected avenues for diplomacy.Far from demonstrating a willingness to engage in peace negotiations, Russia has escalated its ferocious violence through the indiscriminate targeting of civilians.

All the while, however, the Russian Embassy in Ireland and Ambassador Yury Filatov have acted as unwavering and unapologetic propagandists for his country's illegal invasion of Ukraine. Yesterday, in the face of evidence of Russian war crimes in Bucha and other areas surrounding Kyiv, the embassy and the ambassador claimed that this evidence was fabricated. They described it as another stage of the disinformation war against Russia. This shameful response demonstrates the depths to which the Putin regime will stoop to justify the savagery of Russia's military aggression. The Russian ambassador wants us to ignore the evidence before our very eyes. Well, Mr. Filatov, we have heard the accounts of murders carried out by your soldiers reported by numerous credible sources. We have seen the aerial photographs of human remains left scattered by the side of the road. We have seen the cars carrying white flags, indicating civilian passengers, riddled with shrapnel. The evidence of such atrocities condemns Russia before the world, and the world will not turn a blind eye. It is long past time for Ambassador Filatov to be expelled from Ireland. Ba cheart ambasadóir na Rúise in Éirinn a chur abhaile anois. Caithfear an Rialtas é sin a dhéanamh gan mhoill. Yesterday Lithuania became the first EU member state to expel its Russian ambassador. It did so as an action to uphold human rights and justice. I commend Lithuania on that and believe our country should follow suit. That would be a most powerful action for us to take as a militarily neutral, non-aligned State as we too stand for human rights and justice. I call on the Taoiseach and the Government to act now.

Of course, we must do more. The people of Ireland stand with Ukraine. We strongly support Ukraine's stated desire to join the European Union. We must respond to the humanitarian crisis by providing refuge to those fleeing for their lives. As an elected member of the UN Security Council, we must use every available avenue to press for the de-escalation of conflict, for a ceasefire, for dialogue and for a Russian withdrawal and an end to this terrible war.

Ireland supports economic sanctions against Russia. We must intensify those sanctions. We should not have to convince anybody of the need to hit the Russian elites and oligarchs in every possible way. The revelations of these war crimes and atrocities demand such an intensification of sanctions. I welcome the announcement by the European Commission President, Ursula von der Leyen, of a new round of measures, including the ban on the import of Russian coal, the transaction ban on four Russian banks and the ban on Russian vessels from EU ports. The impact of these sanctions creates a real economic challenge for Ireland and across the EU, but Russia and Vladimir Putin must feel the full weight and consequences of this invasion. Russia should not doubt our resolve or our solidarity with the beleaguered people of Ukraine, a people who, as we speak, fight for their lives, fight for their freedom and fight for the survival of their nation. They fight a war of liberation from tyranny and for the right to endure and to go on, and they will. We know that a nation is a living, breathing thing. Ukraine lives, Ukraine breathes and Ukraine will go on.Through its heroic struggle, its people have reaffirmed in all of us the values of sovereignty, justice and democracy and one day the invader will retreat, the coloniser will leave, and Russia's armies will go home. The strength of the Ukrainian people and the support of her allies will see to that. On that day, Ukraine, deeply scarred but unconquered and unbowed, will start to heal and the people of Ukraine will begin again. Shattered cities, broken homes and displaced families and communities will come together once more and shape Ukraine's destiny.

In that spirit of hope and standing on the foundation stones of our shared humanity, Ukraine will emerge once more into a new dawn of peace and freedom. Ireland stands with you now in your dark days and we will stand with you yet in the light of a victory of humanity over injustice, of light over dark, of life over death. Slava Ukraini.