An tOrd Gnó - Order of Business
Seanad Éireann — 2026-02-24
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Tom Clonan (IND), University of Dublin

I want to raise, as we are going into year five of conflict in Ukraine, the courage and fortitude of the Ukrainian people. Since the invasion began, I have written about 40 in-depth analysis pieces for The Journal and other newspapers, giving very forensic accounts of how the Ukrainians have managed to stop Putin's special military operation. From Kharkiv to Kramatorsk to Sloviansk to Zaporizhzhia to Kyiv to Odesa to Lviv, what the Ukrainians have achieved has been extraordinary. It has benefited all of us here and the values we hold and freedoms we enjoy. I acknowledge this sacrifice because Moscow's and Putin's hold on Russia is held on the balance of fear. We know this because of Prigozhin's rush to Moscow not so long ago, which almost succeeded. Putin's leadership is quite brittle. It is based on fear, intimidation and brute force. On the Ukrainian side, their courage is held together not by the absence of fear but by love of their freedoms and their desire to remain free and to survive. To be honest, how the same group of people who have been in combat for four years can continue is extraordinary. To shorten the war and bring it to a conclusion, there should be no appeasement of Vladimir Putin. He is a war criminal. If the Trump Administration thinks it can get a deal by appeasing him, they are wrong. It will prolong the war. We need to end this war and have a just and final peace. We have to end the killing.

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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