The west is arming Ukraine to ‘keep the war going’, MEP Clare Daly has claimed. 

Since Russia’s illegal annexation of Crimea in 2014, there has been extensive cooperation between the militaries of Ukraine and western nations. 

Furthermore, in the aftermath of the invasion last year, billions of dollars worth of military aid have been transferred to the embattled nation - something Ms Daly believes is morally wrong. 

“The obligation of the international community in this instance - as in every war - should be to stop the hostility,” she told The Hard Shoulder. 

“I don’t see why that was good enough for every other war and in this war, we can’t have peace? 

“You’ve got to see it as well against a backdrop of the west arming Ukraine to the point of keeping the conflict going. 

“They’re not arming them to end it - they’re arming it to keep it going - and I think that reprehensible.” 

Peace talks

The Dublin MEP conceded Ukrainians have “every right under international law to defend themselves” but said the focus should be on peace talks.

“The US sat down with the Taliban - who are preventing people from going to school,” she said. 

“The people in Rwanda sat down; there were different sides, there was cannibalism orchestrated [and] mass rapes. 

“The whole idea of peace and dialogue was that it’s very, very complex  and the actual opposite of doing nothing. 

“It requires an awful lot of work.” 

Ukrainian Army soldiers. Picture by: Alamy.com

Ms Daly said praised the role of United States in the Good Friday Agreement and said the international community should try and do something similar in Ukraine. 

“Would we have had the peace agreement in Northern Ireland without the input of the US and without the US having our back in that talk? We wouldn’t," she said. 

“So like that, the international community needs to be involved in peace negotiations in Ukraine and Russia. 

“The actual fact of the matter, Ukraine and Russia did sit down in April, they did agree the outlines of an agreement and it was the UK and the US who prevented them from signing that.” 

In fact, it was President Putin who declared peace talks at a dead end on April 12th 2022 because Ukraine had publicised what he called ‘false’ claims of Russian war crimes and demanded security guarantees cover the whole of Ukraine.

Main image: Clare Daly. Picture by: Michael Debets / Alamy Stock Photo