A Green response to Russian Aggression in Ukraine

 

 

Green Party Ukraine Crisis Webinar March 2022

On 3 March 2022 the Green Party organised a discussion around the Ukraine Crisis at short notice. It was a webinar like no other: listening to Ukrainian MP Maria Ionova speaking to us from Kiev with sirens in the background. Minister Eamon Ryan TD, gave us an introduction, and Professor Donnacha Ó Beacháin from DCU outlined the need for support from Ukraine and Grace O’Sullivan MEP and myself gave a perspective from the European Parliament. Garret Kelly our Foreign Affairs Working Group chair joined us from Sarajevo and Senator Vincent Martin chaired the evening’s proceedings. Below are my speaking notes. 

Maria, I cannot imagine what you are your family are living through in Kiev. 

I ask myself, what can we do? How can we de-escalate? This is the key question this evening. As we watch the violence on our screens, we feel powerless at this remove. Lenin stated, “There are decades where nothing happens; and there are weeks where decades happen." Meanwhile European Commission President von der Leyen said this week: "This is a clash between the rule of law and the rule of the gun; between democracies and autocracies; between a rules-based order and a world of naked aggression.”

Putin’s murderous actions must be condemned. However, we must avoid a direct confrontation between NATO and Russian forces. It was important for the European Parliament to be united yesterday in condemning the invasion, showing solidarity with the Ukrainian people, and calling for the EU to act on issues like greater humanitarian assistance and refugee protection. It is right that Ireland will play its part in welcoming refugees, despite our housing and homelessness challenges. I am pleased that in the European Parliament this week we voted for €1.2 Billion of aid for Ukraine.

Last week I was in Albania, as a member of the Delegation to the EU-Albania Stabilisation and Association Parliamentary Committee. They have waited for many years to be on the list for EU accession.  Today, Georgia and Moldova have applied for EU membership. It is clear that there is now renewed pressure on the European Union to speed up the process for countries that wish to look towards Brussels. Also today, Ministers in the Justice and Home Affairs Council have agreed, for the first time, to trigger the ‘Temporary Protection Directive’ to support people fleeing the Russian invasion of Ukraine. 

The Greens/EFA Group are calling on EU Member States and the Commission to ensure that all people fleeing the war can find sanctuary in the EU. I am glad that Ireland has agreed to play its part in this. The European Union was founded as an economic entity; the Steel and Coal Community, and it has become an environmental and social body. I am worried if it were to morph into a military body, and I am not convinced of this need. I ask myself where would it end? Of course, innocent citizens must be able to defend themselves, and Ireland must provide humanitarian aid. However, the EU must not become a military organisation. This would take away from its key role.

A year ago, I contributed to the public consultation to the Commission on the Defence Forces. I said then that our strengths as a neutral nation have served us well in our peacekeeping role abroad, and in humanitarian tasks in the Mediterranean and elsewhere.   Ireland sits on the United Nations Security Council; it can again assist in tackling global challenges. Our neutrality can be an asset.  In line with the Irish’s State’s constitutional commitment to neutrality, the triple-lock must be respected in terms of any external deployment of the Irish Defence Forces. 

This week’s economic sanctions are strong and significant. Ukrainian resistance is high. A year ago, I raised concerns over attempts that may have occurred involving the hacking of such infrastructure such as undersea cables by foreign forces, and the unannounced incursion of defence aircraft and submarines into Irish waters and airspace. These concerns must inform our defence capabilities.

Ukraine is a breadbasket. It is also rich in coal, oil, and gas, and nuclear. I had not considered concerns about nuclear installations in times of war, I had been more focused on terrorist attack. Clearly, I’d be more worried about a nuclear facility being a battlefield than a windfarm.  The EU’s dependence on Russian oil and gas is now in plain sight. Filling our cars with petrol fuels Putin’s ambitions. 

Now is the time to hit two birds with one stone: end reliance on Russian fossil fuels by promoting a 100% renewable energy economy which helps us tackle the climate crisis. The more we invest now in energy efficiency, energy storage, demand management, peak-shifting and renewable energy, the quicker we’ll be able to stop funding Putin’s war by buying less of his gas and oil. 

Update, 12 March 2022

Back in 1994 Putin made his intentions clear. Michael Stuermer, author of ‘Putin and the Rise of Russia’ was listening carefully. Referring to the 20 million Russians who lived beyond his country’s border Stuermer quotes Putin as saying “For us, their fate is a question of war or peace.” It seems clear that any solution to Russia's war in Ukraine will require assurances for ethnic Russians living there. He sees NATO expansion, and to a lesser extent the EU as a threat.

Earlier this week I had a meeting with Commissioner Frans Timmermans in Strasbourg. He speaks Russian and also knew Putin going back to the 1990s. He had his fair share’s of run-ins with him, over the behaviour of Russian embassy staff in the Netherlands, and Russia’s treatment of Dutch diplomatic staff in Moscow. He even negotiated with him for the release of a Greenpeace ship that was detained in Russia. He is acutely aware of Russia’s power after 192 Dutch citizens died after a Russian missile downed Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 over Eastern Ukraine in 2014. Timmermans believes that sharp and severe economic sanctions will have an impact.

However, I repeat, the focus right now must be on de-escalation. Hopefully peace talks will achieve this.

Thank you.