Taoiseach Micheál Martin has signalled Ireland would consider providing peacekeepers in Ukraine in the event of a ceasefire being struck with an international mandate.
Mr Martin, it is understood, told a meeting involving EU leaders, as well as those of Canada, Iceland and Norway that if such a ceasefire was concluded on UN principles which needed to be monitored by peacekeepers in the same was as the current Defence Forces mission, Ireland would consider participation.
He is also understood to have raised the need for an accelerated process for Ukraine’s membership of the EU.
The meeting was held remotely over two hours against the backdrop of fracturing western consensus over the future support of Ukraine due to interventions by US President Donald Trump.
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The meeting, convened by French president Emmanuel Macron, heard strong support on the need to continue steadfast support for Ukraine, as well as a consensus that any resolution must involve a just, sustainable and durable piece.
Leaders are also understood to have agreed there must be credible security guarantees provided for Ukraine.
Mr Martin’s comments reflect an earlier intervention by Tánaiste Simon Harris, who told RTÉ’s News at One programme that, if there was a peacekeeping mission in place, “of course Ireland shouldn’t recuse itself from being part of that conversation”.
He told the programme: “Now we have very strict and clear rules around peacekeeping including UN mandate, a mandate from the Oireachtas and a mandate from the Government. So, the honest answer is we’re not at this point yet, but we certainly shouldn’t recuse ourselves from being part of that conversation should we get to that point.”
Mr Harris earlier accused US president Donald Trump of “clearly engaging in revisionism on speed” after the US president appeared to blame Ukraine for starting the war with Russia.
On Tuesday night, Mr Trump dismissed Kyiv’s concerns about being left out of US-Russian talks on ending the war in Ukraine.
Speaking to reporters in Florida after a US delegation met Russian counterparts in Saudi Arabia, Mr Trump said Ukraine “should never have started” the war with its neighbour and could previously have made a deal to end it.
Earlier, US secretary of state Marco Rubio announced a four-part agreement with Russia to guide the re-establishment of contacts severed after Moscow’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, which began Europe’s biggest war in 80 years.
“The reality here is there’s only been one aggressor in relation to this brutal illegal invasion, and that is [Russian president] Vladimir Putin, who took a decision to invade a peaceful and neighbouring country on the continent of Europe and Ireland and the European Union,” Mr Harris told RTÉ radio’s News at One.
“When it comes to rhetoric and commentary, though, I do think we need to be calm in our response and we need to differentiate perhaps between comments that are made overnight and the reality on the ground. And the reality is everybody wants to see peace.”
Mr Harris said that any process that brought about peace had to be just. The United States had a right to speak bilaterally about whichever countries they wished, “but in terms of any process around peace, Ukraine clearly has to be in the room, and so too, does Europe”, he said.
“We cannot actually deploy the failed policies of the past when it comes to dealing with aggression. But when it comes to dealing with illegal wars, we live in a world that does have international law and does have a UM charter. And I think there’s huge solidarity across the European Union in terms of speaking up and speaking out for those principles.”
When asked if he trusted Mr Trump on the issue, Mr Harris said he was the democratically-elected president of the United States, and Ireland and Europe would work with any democratically-elected leader.
