Ukraine War Seanad Éireann — 2026-02-24 ============================================================ Helen McEntee (FG), Meath East I thank Senator Craughwell for raising this topic. I also acknowledge Professor Fitzpatrick and Professor Bury in the Gallery As the Senator said, he is raising this topic on a particularly sombre day. I think we are all finding it hard to imagine it is four years since the first day of Russia's brutal, illegal and barbaric war, one it has been waging and is increasing in scale and volume. Since February 2022, in addition to military attacks, Russia has targeted Ukrainian energy, transport facilities, hospitals and schools, all with the intention of trying to break the spirit of the Ukrainian people and, indeed, trying to break the spirit of the EU as a whole and European citizens. We have seen hundreds of thousands of innocent civilians killed, along with Russia's own soldiers that it is sending to the slaughter. Millions of people have now been left without heat and power in freezing winter weather, in temperatures of -24°C and -25°C. We can all see that the Ukrainian people and their spirit have not been broken, and neither has our commitment to support them. Only yesterday, I spoke with the Foreign Minister, Mr. Andrii Sybiha. Last week, I had an opportunity to meet and speak with the Defence Minister, Mr. Mykhailo Fedorov. At the Munich Security Conference recently, I met soldiers who were on the front line and who had taken time to come to relay exactly what is happening to them. At every step of the way, I have relayed Ireland's continued and absolute support for Ukraine and reaffirmed that we will support the country for as long as necessary. I know the Irish people also support this. I have also conveyed the need for the EU as a whole to remain absolutely steadfast in our support for Ukraine and the pressure that needs to continue to be placed on Russia. I acknowledge and welcome the ongoing efforts to end Russia's war of aggression, including the efforts made by the US, the EU and many others to achieve a just and lasting peace for Ukraine. We will do this as an EU member state and through our participation in the coalition of the willing, which the Taoiseach participated in this morning. Russia's response to peace efforts to date has been to continue its missile attacks, to intensify the number of soldiers it is quite literally sending to the slaughter and to attack civilian infrastructure and towns, resulting in casualties and increased suffering. Russia can stop this at any time. It chooses not to; it chooses the path it has taken. This means more and more civilians are suffering. In bringing this topic to the Seanad today, the Senator has highlighted and given me an opportunity to highlight not just the response from a Government perspective but also, thankfully, the huge amount of work our own citizens are doing. So much of it is unseen and unheard. I am pleased to say this is not the first time I am hearing of this project. I commend the absolutely invaluable work that is being done by Professor Fitzpatrick and Professor Bury and all those involved in the UCD Ukraine trauma project. The valuable work of training pre-hospital civilian and military first responders is a further manifestation of the solidarity I have spoken about. The project is quite literally saving lives. As Senator Craughwell referenced, President Zelenskyy and the First Lady, Olena Zelenska, honoured the project's success with a Golden Heart award during their visit to Ireland last December. I take this opportunity again to congratulate the project on the work being done, with more than 650 people trained and nine missions. I am sure there will be many more missions to come for as long as they are needed. There have also been 1,700 advanced kits. All of this work is literally saving lives. At my direction recently, officials at the Departments of education and Foreign Affairs and Trade have been engaging directly with the UCD Ukraine trauma project to discuss the work planned for 2026. We have been trying to examine how best we can help Ukraine as it continues to experience tremendous levels of need. The United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs estimates that 10.8 million people will require humanitarian assistance. The work of this project, and the need for it, is absolutely essential. The most recent updated joint rapid damage and needs assessment estimates that at the end of 2025, the total cost of reconstruction and recovery in Ukraine was almost $588 billion. However we can help, be it through humanitarian assistance, direct funding for critical infrastructure, the funding we have been providing for defence spending or the funding we need to provide for these types of projects, we will continue to provide this support and help. Senator Craughwell will appreciate, and I know both gentleman in the Gallery will appreciate, that when we are providing this level of assistance, particularly directing it through our office of development, we have to ensure that all projects go through in-depth analysis and that we go through the engagement that is part of the process to make sure the money goes exactly where it is needed. I assure Senator Craughwell that we will engage closely with the UCD Ukraine trauma project along with our partners on its work and make sure we can continue this essential work. --- Source: Houses of the Oireachtas. Licensed under CC BY 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). The Official Report is revised after first publication; the fetch timestamp below identifies the version quoted. Record URI: https://data.oireachtas.ie/akn/ie/debateRecord/seanad/2026-02-24/debate/main Retrieved: 2026-08-14T04:54:41+00:00 Sitting date: 2026-02-24