Tom Clonan (Independent) | Oireachtas source

Merba ila Irlanda. Merba ila Dublin. I speak as an Independent Senator representing the graduates of Trinity College Dublin. I also speak as a veteran of Ireland's Armed Forces and a veteran of conflict in the Middle East, a person who has witnessed at first hand the squalor and indiscriminate savagery of war in the Middle East. War such as that in Ukraine today kills innocent men and women and murders children. I commend the support our European Union has given to Ukraine, including the moral support, financial support and, yes, the supply of weapons and armaments that Ukraine may defend itself against Vladimir Putin's aggression. Today I make this plea to President Metsola, as a veteran and a parent of teenagers and young adults, please, we need to invest as much energy in ending this war as we do in tanks, air defence systems, fighter aircraft or longer range missiles.

Putin and his henchmen-and henchwomen have shown a complete disregard for the international laws of conflict. Putin has shown complete disregard for logic and a complete disregard for human life. Tens of thousands of young Ukrainian soldiers and thousands of innocent Ukrainian men, women and children have been sacrificed on the altar of his fragile ego and brittle patriarchal ambition as have tens of thousands of young Russian men from the poorest republics in the Russian Federation. And for what? A vanity project at the behest of the world's richest oligarchs. As spring approaches we risk escalation in this war. I have no doubt that Putin and his newly appointed General Gerasimov, architect of the infamous Gerasimov doctrine, is capable of deploying a so-called tactical nuclear weapon, or mini nuke, in Ukraine. That would signal the beginning of a wider and cataclysmic conflict. There is a saying in Russian, and there is also a saying in Ireland when people ask for directions, "I would not start here" but here we are.

The direction I ask from President Metsola and from the European Parliament is to find the pathway to peace, to leave no stone unturned and to bring an end and a just resolution to the war. The most powerful weapon we can give Ukraine in this conflict is full membership of our European Union. We need to accelerate this because our values and prosperity represent the most powerful challenge to tyranny. Putin and his cronies will not be here forever. Ukraine will. Likewise will the European Union and the people of Russia. Let us find a pathway to peace through our European Union. It is not a military union but a social and economic union. Let us not forget it is the greatest peace process in human history and long may it continue.