There must be no obstacles to Ukraine aid – Tánaiste

TÁNAISTE Micheál Martin has said there must be no ‘obstacles or roadblocks’ to providing aid and support to Ukraine.

Mr Martin yesterday met with EU foreign ministers in Brussels, where they heard from Yulia Navalnaya, wife of Russian opposition figure Alexei Navalny – whose death at a remote Arctic penal colony was announced last week. Mr Martin said Mr Navalny’s death while in detention is a reminder of the ‘repressive and oppressive’ Russian regime.

More than 300 people have been detained in Russia while paying tributes to Mr Navalny. Mr Martin said: ‘President Putin has ruthlessly put down any opposition and suppressed any dissent, freedom of speech, freedom of the right to gather.

‘It is quite extraordinary to watch the scenes last evening on television, where people merely putting flowers on the wall in sympathy are dissuaded and there are people about trying to, if you like, eliminate any evidence of significant sympathy for Alexei Navalny in Russia itself.’

He said the European Foreign Affairs Council will empathise and

‘The human spirit is being suppressed’

sympathise ‘very strongly’ with the Navalny family. He said this would show there are alternatives to Putin’s regime. ‘It’s quite shocking when you stand back and just reflect on the degree to which the fundamental spirit of the human being is been suppressed in Russia,’ Mr Martin added. He said this was also relevant to the council’s discussion of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, adding: ‘Because that’s what the people of Ukraine don’t want.

‘They know what freedom of speech is, they know what a better life is in terms of a life in a democracy. The last thing they want is to become part of the Russian Federation, and to live under such circumstances as the Navalny family and many, many others have had to live under.’

The council also heard from Ukrainian foreign minister Dmytro Kuleba as the second anniversary of the invasion approaches.

Mr Martin said there was a necessity for Europe to make sure that there are ‘no more obstacles or roadblocks to providing the necessary aid and support to Ukraine’.

He said sanctions packages will ‘keep the pressure on’ Russia.