Taoiseach Micheál Martin has called Vladimir Putin a "thug and a bully" and said the Russian president has unleashed an "unprovoked" and "unjustifiable" war on the people of Ukraine.
Mr Martin said Ireland must be "very generous" in terms of the refugee crisis that would "undoubtedly flow as a result of this war", and that this crisis would be "beyond anything that we've comprehended before".
Speaking in the Dáil on Tuesday as the national and international outcry over Russia’s invasion of Ukraine continued, Mr Martin said that while he understood fully the “revulsion and anger” towards the Russian ambassador in Ireland, Yury Filatov, amid the invasion, “no country was proposing the expulsion of any ambassador”.
He said the Government had “no interest” in enabling any Russian oligarchs to “either evade or avoid being fully accountable” to EU sanctions, adding that there was “no interest as a country in protecting anybody in that regard”.
Mr Martin said the Government would do everything it could to ensure compliance with the sanctions, which were introduced following the beginning of the invasion on Thursday last.
“Vladimir Putin is a bully and a thug, [he] has unleashed an unprovoked, unjustifiable war on the people of Ukraine, committing war crimes in the process as we are witnessing,” Mr Martin told the Dáil during Leader’s Questions on Tuesday.
‘Unprecedented’ response
Mr Martin said what the world was witnessing in Ukraine was “scarcely believable” but “very real for the people of Ukraine” and that Ireland’s response had been “unprecedented”.
He said the EU had responded with "absolute solidarity" with Ukraine and that the scale of sanctions deployed were "unprecedented" and were already having an impact in Russia.
“The biggest challenge facing us as a country I believe, is that we must be very generous in terms of the refugee crisis that will undoubtedly flow as a result of this war,” he said.
“It will be beyond anything that we’ve comprehended before and I said to my colleagues in Government and the departments we must put to one side what we might have considered to be the norms in terms of responding in a humanitarian way to the plight of the Ukrainian people.”
The Taoiseach said the secretary general in his department was convening with Government Ministers to “make sure that we scale up the response in context of the humanitarian crisis unfolding before our eyes”.
It remains unclear what Mr Putin is seeking in launching the invasion, although western officials believe he wants to overthrow Ukraine’s government and replace it with a regime of his own, reviving Moscow’s cold war-era influence.
‘Criminal affront’
Sinn Féin leader Mary Lou McDonald said in the Dáil that the invasion of Ukraine was “a criminal affront to the civilised world” and a threat to the peace and security of “people everywhere”.
Ms McDonald said any attempt by Mr Putin or his regime to "justify his actions as a response to Nato are without foundation and are merely a means of distraction from his own culpability".
“It is his military aggression which is bringing death and destruction to Ukraine,” she said.
Social Democrats co-leader Catherine Murphy said it was really important that Ireland played its full part in the sanctions announced. Ms Murphy said that if there were "loopholes to be closed", legislation must be produced as "a matter of urgency". Additional reporting: Reuters
