IRELAND BACKS THE European Union’s plans to freeze the assets of Vladimir Putin and his foreign minister, Foreign Affairs Minister Simon Coveney has said.

Speaking in Brussels as he attended a meeting of EU foreign ministers, Coveney said he understands the EU plans to introduce an asset freeze on the Russian president and Sergei Lavrov.

EU leaders agreed a fresh set of sanctions against Russia following an emergency summit in Brussels late on Thursday.

Coveney said his country also left open the possibility that the bloc might go further, suggesting Ireland would be open to harsher measures against Russia as war continues to rage in Ukraine.

He condemned the “horrific images” from Ukraine, as capital Kyiv prepares for an all-out assault from Russian forces.

He described them as “the kind of images that I think most people on the continent of Europe felt were consigned to history”.

He added:

“We are seeing a full-scale war being waged on one of Europe’s largest countries by a nuclear superpower next door, and we need to respond to that as the European Union.

“We need to get very clear messages that this is completely unacceptable, is breaching international law, is a breach of the UN Charter and is a breach of a country’s sovereignty and right to exist within its own recognised international borders.

“I think for many countries, we’d like to even go further than that package. Certainly from an Irish perspective, we think that the strongest possible act of sanctions needs to be agreed and if we can add to what we are agreeing today then we should, in a third round of sanctions within the next few days.

“I know that the decision has been, I think, made and agreed and we support it, to add the names of Vladimir Putin and Sergei Lavrov to the sanctions list, in terms of asset freeze.

Coveney described such a move as “absolutely appropriate”.

He said the actions by Putin have caused a “fundamental change” to how Europe views security, but he stressed the immediate concern is supporting the people of Ukraine.

Coveney insisted the EU should be “considering the strongest possible package of sanctions”.

He did not rule out following the lead of Poland, which has decided to ban Russian airlines from its airspace.

“What we’re agreeing today is what has been possible to agree across all EU countries. I think that’s a big, big package,” Coveney said.

“We shouldn’t underestimate the scale of that.

“I also think we should have a third round of sanctions ready to add, for example, the Swift payment system as part of that package, but I think we should be open to other proposals as well, absolutely, to lengthen the list in terms of people who are being targeted with asset freezes and travel bans.

“But if there are other suggestions coming from Poland and other countries, we should be open to that.”

Don’t bring Ireland into an argument trying to justify and unjustifiable war.
Ireland/U.K. are an example of how 2 countries, with a difficult past, found a way to shape and sustain a peace process, guaranteeing an absence of violence. @dfatirl https://t.co/dQlSfckRPs

— Simon Coveney (@simoncoveney) February 25, 2022

Earlier, Coveney had hit back at Lavrov after he referenced the use of the English language in Ireland during a press conference on Ukraine.

“If in Ireland, if they prohibited English language, what would the UK think about it?”  Lavrov said.

Also offering the example of the use of French in Belgium, he added: “I can’t imagine that a law like that would last for more than a couple of days or even hours.”

Coveney rubbished the comparison.

In a strongly worded tweet, he said Russia should not try to use Ireland to justify an “unjustifiable war”.

He said the Irish-British relationship is an example of two countries with a “difficult past” that “found a way to shape and sustain a peace process, guaranteeing an absence of violence”.

This evening, Coveney said that “on behalf of Ireland” he had made the case for the inclusion of SWIFT in a further package of sanctions expected to be agreed in the coming days.

Martin said the invasion by Russia was a “gross violation” of the territorial integrity of Ukraine.

He admitted there will be “a price to pay” for European countries as a consequence of the sanctions.