Following a bilateral meeting in Kyiv, President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine and Taoiseach Simon Harris signed a memorandum of understanding on areas of mutual cooperation, reports RTE.
With the announcement of a €36 million aid package for Ukraine and its neighbours, Mr. Harris declared, “The people of Ireland stand with the people of Ukraine.”
He declared that Ireland backs Ukraine’s attempts to join the EU.
When Mr. Harris stated that he was “particularly pleased” to invite the head of Ukraine for an official visit to Ireland, President Zelensky nodded, reports RTE.
“We are grateful to you”, Mr Zelensky added, “and to the people of Ireland for very specific and clear and principled support and a position countering Russian terror”.
He mentioned that seven people had died in an overnight strike in Lviv, including children.
53 persons were killed in a Russian missile attack on the city of Poltava in central Ukraine.
Additionally, Mr. Zelensky expressed gratitude to Ireland for accepting over 100,000 Ukrainian migrants, reports RTE.
When asked if Ukrainian citizens will be able to enter Ireland without a visa following the end of the conflict, Mr. Harris expressed his hope that Ukraine would join the EU and allow Ukrainians to travel freely throughout the organisation. This was done during a joint news conference.
Earlier, the Taoiseach toured areas of the Kyiv Oblast region that were severely devastated in the early phases of the Russian invasion and still had an air raid alert in place, paying respect to the tenacity of the Ukrainian people.
Mr. Harris had arrived in the nation via sleeper train, where he was met at Nemishaieve station and given a tour of a childcare centre that had been restored after being damaged by shelling, reports RTE.
The Taoiseach saw an elderly couple whose home had been devastated by Russian shelling elsewhere in the city.
As a result of a project supported by Irish Aid and the UNHCR, the agency for refugees, Mikolaj and Natalia currently reside in a modular home that was built at a cost of €1.5 million, one of 50 such homes in the region.
Overnight, 42 places around Ukraine were the target of Russian drones and missiles, according to the Ukrainian air force. Seven rockets and almost twenty drones were shot down, reports RTE.
Mr. Harris denounced “Russia’s military strike and killing of scores of people in Poltava” yesterday in a speech prior to the visit, calling it “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,” reports RTE.
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