LAST UPDATE | 25 Feb 2022
TAOISEACH MICHEÁL MARTIN has said the sanctions adopted by the EU against Russia overnight will have impact, but “they will not stop Russia now from doing what it is doing”.
Speaking to reporters in Brussels this morning, he said the sanctions are the “largest and most severe ever adopted” by the EU.
The Taoiseach said they will hit hard in terms of the industrial base of the Russian economy, the financial sector in terms of asset freezes, as well as in Russia’s ability to wage war in the future.
Restrictions and limitations in shipping and aircraft areas in particular, will limit Russia’s access to parts and chips, which Martin said will impact on Russia’s capacity in the future.
“Over time these sanctions will have impact – they won’t halt what Russia is currently doing in Ukraine but it is a fundamental shift in the EU’s attitude and approach to Russia from here on,” he said.
The sanctions, in their totality, are very strong, he said.
He added that “on its own it is not going to stop what was a deliberate premeditated decision by Putin to have his way, to launch this brutal attack to attain some sort of idea he has in his head about restoration of empire harking back to a bygone era… that is the rationale underpinning this”, he said.
Zelensky pleads for assistance
The Taoiseach told reporters that the President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky addressed the Special EU Council meeting last night.
World leaders “were struck by the extraordinary courage” of the President Zelensky, both in his political and personal strength, as well as the fact Zelensky has said he will being staying in Kyiv, come what may, said the Taoiseach.
The Taoiseach said Zelensky pleaded for assistance, “which was really a moment that caused quite considerable reflection afterwards”.
He made it “very clear this was a whole of country attack”, said Martin.
The Russian decision to invade Ukraine is an “existential crisis facing the world order”, and shows the need for Europe to “develop its own self reliance in energy and other areas”.
The sanctions signed off on last night by EU leaders were prepared over a considerable period of time, said Martin, but he added that there were wide ranging discussions last night on what more could be done.
He said a “whole range of ideas came forward”.
“We are clear from an Irish perspective that we favour the toughest possible sanctions that can be deployed,” he said.
He told reporters that it is clear that Putin was planning this invasion for some time and that he “wants to restore empire”.
‘This is going to be a long haul’
In terms of the impact the sanctions will have on Europeans, the Taoiseach said “we have to be honest with our people, there will be a price that will be paid for this”.
“That’s a consequence of President Putin’s actions – not anything we are doing. We have to stand up for principles and our values and that means sanctions that will impact not only on Russia but on our own countries as well in the EU,” he said.
An energy paper is now being prepared by the EU as to “where we take this” in terms of interventions that can be made and in terms of pricing, said the Taoiseach.
The EU will also seek to anticipate countermeasures from Russia, and what impacts they might have on the EU.
“This is going to be a long haul – this isn’t going to be something that is short-term in terms of the consequences of the Russian invasion into Ukraine and it will define for a long time to come the relationship between the EU and other countries and democracies in terms of Russia,” he added.
Subversive groups
The Taoiseach’s comments come as President Zelensky said his government has information that “subversive groups” were encroaching Kyiv as US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said the city “could well be under siege”.
US Defence Secretary Lloyd Austin told lawmakers on a phone call that Russian mechanised forces that entered from Belarus were about 20 miles from Kyiv, according to a person familiar with the call.
Explosions sounded before dawn in Kyiv as Western leaders scheduled an emergency meeting and Zelensky pleaded for international help.
The nature of the explosions was not immediately clear, but the blasts came amid signs that the capital and largest Ukrainian city was increasingly threatened following a day of fighting that left more than 100 Ukrainians dead.
Fearing a Russian attack on the capital city, thousands of people went deep underground as night fell on Thursday, jamming Kyiv’s subway stations.
“Nobody believed that this war would start and that they would take Kyiv directly,” said Anton Mironov, waiting out the night in one of the old Soviet metro stations. “I feel mostly fatigue. None of it feels real.”
Earlier, Zelensky ordered a full military mobilisation to counter the Russian invasion which he said had led to 137 deaths.
In a decree issued late last night, he said the the mobilisation would last 90 days.
He tasked the military’s general staff with determining the number of people eligible for service and the number of reservists as well as the order of the call-up.
He called those that had lost their lives in the invasion “heroes” and also said hundreds more have been wounded.
Zelensky said that despite Russia’s claim it is attacking only military targets, civilian sites also have been struck.
In his words: “They’re killing people and turning peaceful cities into military targets. It’s foul and will never be forgiven.”
The UN Security Council will vote today on a resolution that would condemn Russia’s military aggression against Ukraine “in the strongest terms” and demand an immediate halt to Russia’s invasion and the withdrawal of all Russian troops.
Attack
Russia earlier launched a wide-ranging attack on the eastern European country, hitting cities and bases with air strikes or shelling, as civilians piled into trains and cars to flee.
Ukraine’s government said Russian tanks and troops rolled across the border in a “full-scale war” that could rewrite the geopolitical order and whose fallout has already reverberated around the world.
The president said all border guards on Zmiinyi island in the Odesa region were killed on Thursday. Ukraine’s border guard service earlier in the day reported that the island was taken by the Russians.
Ukrainian officials said they had lost control of the Chernobyl nuclear site, where forces had waged a fierce battle with Russian troops and there are concerns staff have been taken hostage
The White House has said the reports of hostages are “credible”.
Ukrainian forces were battling other troops just miles from Kyiv for control of a strategic airport.
The Russian Defence Ministry said its ground forces have moved into Ukraine from Crimea, the first confirmation from Moscow that its ground forces have moved in, advancing towards the city of Kherson, north west of Crimea.
In unleashing Moscow’s most aggressive action since the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan in 1979, President Vladimir Putin deflected global condemnation and cascading new sanctions – and chillingly referred to his country’s nuclear arsenal.
He threatened any foreign country attempting to interfere with “consequences you have never seen”.
Large explosions were heard in the capital and in other cities on the first day of the invasion, and people massed in train stations and took to roads, as the government said the former Soviet republic was seeing a long-anticipated invasion from the east, north and south.
The chief of the Nato alliance said the “brutal act of war” shattered peace in Europe, joining a chorus of world leaders who decried the attack, which could cause massive casualties, topple Ukraine’s democratically elected government and upend the post-Cold War security order.
The conflict was already shaking global financial markets – stocks plunged and oil prices soared amid concerns that heating bills and food prices would skyrocket.
Condemnation rained down not only from the US and Europe, but from South Korea, Australia and beyond – and many governments readied new sanctions.
Even friendly leaders such as Hungary’s Viktor Orban sought to distance themselves from Putin.
Zelensky cut diplomatic ties with Moscow and declared martial law.
“As of today, our countries are on different sides of world history,” Zelensky tweeted.
Russia has embarked on a path of evil, but Ukraine is defending itself and won’t give up its freedom.
His adviser Mykhailo Podolyak said: “A full-scale war in Europe has begun… Russia is not only attacking Ukraine, but the rules of normal life in the modern world.”
While some nervous Europeans speculated about a possible new world war, the US and its Nato partners have so far shown no indication they would join in a war against Russia.
They instead mobilised troops and equipment around Ukraine’s western flank – as Ukraine pleaded for defence assistance and help protecting its airspace.
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