Taoiseach Simon Harris has held a bilateral meeting with Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky in Kyiv where the two leaders signed a joint memorandum on areas of co-operation.
Mr Harris, who announced a €36 million package for Ukraine and neighbouring countries, said: “The people of Ireland stand with the people of Ukraine.”
He said that Ireland supports Ukraine’s efforts on EU membership.
President Zelensky nodded when Mr Harris said that he was “particularly pleased” to invite the Ukrainian leader for an official visit to Ireland.
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“We are grateful to you”, Mr Zelensky said, “and to the people of Ireland for very specific and clear and principled support and a position countering Russian terror”.
He noted that children were among the seven people killed in a strike in Lviv overnight.
A Russian missile strike on the central Ukrainian city of Poltava killed 53 people.
“Under such conditions, we really value each reflection of support for our country and our people.”
Mr Zelensky also thanked Ireland for welcoming more than 100,000 Ukrainian refugees.
Asked during a joint press conference if Ukrainian nationals would have visa-free access to Ireland after the war ends, Mr Harris said that he hoped Ukraine would become a member of the EU and that Ukrainians would have access to free movement within the bloc.
Taoiseach visits war-torn regions
Earlier, the Taoiseach paid tribute to the resilience of the Ukrainian people as he visited parts of the Kyiv Oblast region which were catastrophically damaged during the early stages of the Russian invasion, and where an air raid warning was still in effect.
After travelling into the country on an overnight train, Mr Harris had been greeted at Nemishaieve station, and was given a tour of a crèche facility, which has been rebuilt following shelling damage.
Elsewhere in the capital, the Taoiseach met an elderly couple whose home had been destroyed by Russian shelling.
Mikolaj and Natalia now live in a modular home, part of a project funded by the UN’s refugee agency, UNHCR, and Irish Aid, which funded 50 modular homes in the region at a cost of €1.5m.
According to the Ukrainian air force, Russian drones and missiles targeted 42 locations overnight across Ukraine. More than 20 drones and seven missiles were shot down.
Speaking ahead of the visit, Mr Harris condemned “Russia’s military strike and killing of scores of people in Poltava” yesterday as “a grim and horrific reminder of the threat Ukraine is facing every day.
“We express our outrage and sympathy to the families of those who have died.”
In July 2023, the G7 pledged support to Ukraine, with Ireland and other EU states signing up to that Joint Declaration.
Since then, 25 states, including most EU member states, the US, the UK, and Japan have completed bilateral security agreements with Ukraine, with a number of others close to finalisation.
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Earlier, Mr Harris had visited Ukraine’s Children’s Rights Protection Centre in Kyiv, and met with families whose children had suffered from trauma as a result of the war.
Mr Harris will also meet Ukrainian Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal as well as senior representatives from humanitarian aid agencies to discuss the issue of the return of illegal displaced Ukrainian children from Russia and Belarus.
More than 19,000 Ukrainian children are understood to have been illegally displaced to Russia, Russian-occupied Ukraine or Belarus.
Ireland and Canada are working closely together on highlighting efforts to reunify displaced Ukrainian children with their families.
This is Mr Harris’s first visit to Ukraine as Taoiseach, and marks the third visit by a taoiseach to Ukraine since the start of the Russian invasion in February 2022.
Former taoiseach Leo Varadkar travelled to Kyiv and met with Mr Zelensky in July 2023 and visited areas outside the capital that had been destroyed.
The first taoiseach to visit Ukraine was Mícheál Martin in July 2022.
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Additional reporting Paul Cunningham, PA