Irish Prime Minister Simon Harris said during a meeting with Ukrainian leader Volodymyr Zelenskyy at Shannon Airport (Ireland) on Saturday that he had accepted an official invitation from the latter to visit Ukraine and hoped to make the visit in the coming weeks, The Irish Times reports.
During a brief conversation with journalists at the airport, Harris said he had a very good meeting with President Zelensky. “I’m very pleased to welcome him to Ireland,” he said, adding that “it gave me the opportunity to express the condolences of the people of Ireland to the people of Ukraine, to the President of Ukraine, for the loss of life during this brutal and illegal Russian war.”
The Irish prime minister also said he was “absolutely horrified” that Russia was abducting Ukrainian children. “I don’t believe the world knows enough about this… Russia is actively stealing children from Ukraine – taking young babies and children from their parents and taking them to the temporarily occupied territories or to Russia.”
Asked whether he and Zelensky had talked about the fact that the Irish government had recently cut child support payments to Ukrainian refugees living in the country, Harris said that the issue had not been raised.
“If that question had come up, I would have simply emphasized that it is very important to move from an emergency response to a more sustainable model,” he said, adding that “we have made the changes because we want to be able to continue to support those who need our support for as long as it takes. I think that from any fair and objective point of view, the changes we have made go a long way towards bringing Ireland in line with the best practice of other European countries.”
In addition, he noted that “everyone wants to achieve a situation where the war is over and the people of Ukraine can return home.” “The people of Ukraine will be welcomed here and will be accepted for as long as it takes,” Harris said.
He also added: “We want Ukraine to become a member of the EU, and if that happens, people from Ukraine will have the same freedom of movement as any other EU citizen.”
