IAWM PR: UKRAINE – All efforts must be made to get an immediate ceasefire and negotiations for peace started

IRISH ANTI WAR MOVEMENT (IAWM) PRESS RELEASE 01 MARCH 2022
• The Irish Anti-war movement calls for an end to the war in Ukraine.
• All efforts must be made to get an immediate ceasefire and negotiations for peace started. There must be no escalation of the war by NATO or the EU. This will be a catastrophe for the people of Ukraine and beyond.
• We stand with the Russian protesters who are against the war.
• Russia must get out of Ukraine. NATO must not expand any further into Eastern Europe.
• We call on the Irish Government to stand up for Ireland’s neutrality and make the case in the UN Security council and in the institutions of the EU, for diplomacy and peace.
We are seeing the unfolding of a murderous war within Europe. Ukrainian civilians are being killed across a dozen cities – Kharkiv, Odessa, Mariupol and Kyiv are under siege. The Ukrainian people are resisting with incredible bravery and courage. Putin has taken war to new levels by threatening to put his country’s nuclear forces on high alert. The fighting has displaced over 500,000 people already and the number of refugees could reach seven million.
There has been an outpouring of solidarity with the Ukrainians across Europe. But the EU leaders are responding to Putin’s aggression with further aggression.
For the first time ever, the European Union will finance the purchase and delivery of weapons and other equipment to Ukraine. European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen herself has called this a watershed moment – one which sees the EU asserting itself as a rival military force to Russia.
This will intensify the war and make worse the suffering of the Ukrainian people.
We cannot allow the war to become the cover for approval for NATO’s aggressive expansion eastwards and for its past and current war crimes in multiple theatres around the world. Zelensky’s delegates met yesterday with Russian delegates for talks on the border in Belarus, a move met with cynical distain by the western powers. Ireland should be championing any peace talks and making its voice for peace heard.
Nor can we let the war in Ukraine become the pretext to align Ireland more closely with the militarisation of the EU. Our Taoiseach has declared that we are ‘militarily but not politically’ neutral, a formula which allows Ireland to merge its message with the pro-war stand of the EU. Minister McEntee has assured the EU that while Ireland will not be directly sending lethal weapons to Ukraine, that ‘it will not block others from doing so’. Some Irish politicians have called for Irish anti-armour weaponry in the Curragh to be sent to Ukraine to use against the Russians, claiming that now is the time for Ireland to provide ‘hard power’ in this war.
Adding fuel to the cauldron will only prolong the war. It is madness.
The IAWM salutes the courage of the anti-war movement in Russia. In defiance of the repressive Russian regime, it has sprung into existence across dozens of cities in Russia and ‘нет войны / No War’ has become the slogan that reaches out across national boundaries. The IAWM and all anti-war activists in Ireland take our lead from them and we raise the same clear anti-war message here.
We call on the Irish Government to pursue the cause of peace not war.
• Stand with the Russian protesters: нет войны – No War
• Stop the Russian invasion
• Stop the NATO expansion.
Contact:
Jim Roche, PRO Steering Committee, IAWM, Tel. 087 6472737
Sara O Rourke, Member, Steering Committee, IAWM, Tel. 087 6024821
Glenda Cimino, Steering Committee IAWM, Tel. 086 124 9456
Marnie Holborrow, Member, Steering Committee, IAWM, Tel. 087 9889244
Michael Youlton, Chair Steering Committee, IAWM, Tel. 086 8159487
END

IRISH ANTI WAR MOVEMENT (IAWM) PRESS RELEASE 01 MARCH 2022
• The Irish Anti-war movement calls for an end to the war in Ukraine.
• All efforts must be made to get an immediate ceasefire and negotiations for peace started. There must be no escalation of the war by NATO or the EU. This will be a catastrophe for the people of Ukraine and beyond.
• We stand with the Russian protesters who are against the war.
• Russia must get out of Ukraine. NATO must not expand any further into Eastern Europe.
• We call on the Irish Government to stand up for Ireland’s neutrality and make the case in the UN Security council and in the institutions of the EU, for diplomacy and peace.
We are seeing the unfolding of a murderous war within Europe. Ukrainian civilians are being killed across a dozen cities – Kharkiv, Odessa, Mariupol and Kyiv are under siege. The Ukrainian people are resisting with incredible bravery and courage. Putin has taken war to new levels by threatening to put his country’s nuclear forces on high alert. The fighting has displaced over 500,000 people already and the number of refugees could reach seven million.
There has been an outpouring of solidarity with the Ukrainians across Europe. But the EU leaders are responding to Putin’s aggression with further aggression.
For the first time ever, the European Union will finance the purchase and delivery of weapons and other equipment to Ukraine. European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen herself has called this a watershed moment – one which sees the EU asserting itself as a rival military force to Russia.
This will intensify the war and make worse the suffering of the Ukrainian people.
We cannot allow the war to become the cover for approval for NATO’s aggressive expansion eastwards and for its past and current war crimes in multiple theatres around the world. Zelensky’s delegates met yesterday with Russian delegates for talks on the border in Belarus, a move met with cynical distain by the western powers. Ireland should be championing any peace talks and making its voice for peace heard.
Nor can we let the war in Ukraine become the pretext to align Ireland more closely with the militarisation of the EU. Our Taoiseach has declared that we are ‘militarily but not politically’ neutral, a formula which allows Ireland to merge its message with the pro-war stand of the EU. Minister McEntee has assured the EU that while Ireland will not be directly sending lethal weapons to Ukraine, that ‘it will not block others from doing so’. Some Irish politicians have called for Irish anti-armour weaponry in the Curragh to be sent to Ukraine to use against the Russians, claiming that now is the time for Ireland to provide ‘hard power’ in this war.
Adding fuel to the cauldron will only prolong the war. It is madness.
The IAWM salutes the courage of the anti-war movement in Russia. In defiance of the repressive Russian regime, it has sprung into existence across dozens of cities in Russia and ‘нет войны / No War’ has become the slogan that reaches out across national boundaries. The IAWM and all anti-war activists in Ireland take our lead from them and we raise the same clear anti-war message here.
We call on the Irish Government to pursue the cause of peace not war.
• Stand with the Russian protesters: нет войны – No War
• Stop the Russian invasion
• Stop the NATO expansion.
Contact:
Jim Roche, PRO Steering Committee, IAWM, Tel. 087 6472737
Sara O Rourke, Member, Steering Committee, IAWM, Tel. 087 6024821
Glenda Cimino, Steering Committee IAWM, Tel. 086 124 9456
Marnie Holborrow, Member, Steering Committee, IAWM, Tel. 087 9889244
Michael Youlton, Chair Steering Committee, IAWM, Tel. 086 8159487
END