Clare Daly defends voting against resolution condemning Russian aggression 

MEP says she condemns Russia's illegal invasion of Ukraine but opposes militarism and the acceleration of Nato involvement

Clare Daly was one of just 13 MEPs to vote against a European Parliament resolution condemning the Russian invasion of Ukraine. File picture: Leah Farrell / RollingNews.ie

Russia has "genuine" and "legitimate" security concerns and the role Nato has in the Ukrainian conflict has been overlooked, MEP Clare Daly has claimed.

The Independents 4 Change MEP has strongly defended her decision to vote against an overall European Parliament resolution condemning Russian aggression against Ukraine and demanding Vladimir Putin immediately pull his troops out.

Ms Daly and her Independents 4 Change colleague Mick Wallace were among just 13 MEPs to vote against the resolution which also argued in favour of a speeding-up of Ukraine's candidacy for EU membership.

She said her voting down of the motion represented the anti-war mandate on which she contested the European election and previous general elections.

"So while forthrightly condemning the Russian illegal invasion of Ukraine — and the voting record shows that we voted for those parts of the resolution — what we opposed was the increasing of arms into Ukraine, the acceleration of Nato involvement, and the acceleration of militarism and military expenditure inside the EU.

The point that we're making is that this narrative that somehow the war is happening because we're dealing with some crazed maniac in the form of Putin is a distortion of the reality that one of the contributing factors to this situation has been the constant destabilization of that region by Nato. 

She said it was "utter nonsense" to claim she is anti-American and instead she said she is pro-peace.

She told RTÉ radio that she did not regret saying in her own podcast in January that there was no evidence that Russia was planning to invade Ukraine and stressed that others were of a similar view at the time.

"What I regret is that the European Union, who should be promoting peace, are actually accelerating that conflict".

While she condemned the invasion of Ukraine, Ms Daly added: 

That's not the same as saying that Russia doesn't have genuine security concerns, which are legitimate, and they do. 

She described the war as an uneven flight and the measures that the European Union took to "hurl extra military hardware" into Ukraine is "not going to even up that fight".

"What we're saying is that Europe should be stepping in to negotiate an end to the war and negotiation of peace. That's the only way in which the Ukrainians can be saved."