People Before Profit TDs explain refusal to applaud President Zelenskyy's Dáil address

PBP TD Richard Boyd Barrett said: "Russia must end this bloody invasion and allow the people of Ukraine to determine their own future".

An address by Volodymyr Zelensky, President of Ukraine, of TDs and senators in the Dáil Chamber. Photo: Maxwells

People Before Profit TDs have defended their refusal to clap after the Dáil address of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.

While the TDs stood up after the address, they did not join in the round of applause for President Zelenskyy by senators and TDs in the chamber.

"We stood in solidarity and respect for Ukrainian people and for their president and the war crimes they are suffering at the hands of Putin," a spokesperson said.

But we disagree with calls he made previously for Nato involvement which we think would escalate an already dangerous situation and the call for further sanctions which we fear will weaken the opposition to Putin in Russia.

PBP TD Richard Boyd Barrett, who spoke during the special Dáil sitting, said: “The world must condemn and demand accountability for the horrific war crimes and crimes against humanity being committed by Vladamir Putin’s forces in Ukraine.

“The people of Ukraine are the victims of a barbaric and unjustified imperialist invasion. Russia must end this bloody invasion and allow the people of Ukraine to determine their own future.

“However, we reject completely the attempts by the current government to use the crisis in Ukraine as an excuse to abandon Ireland’s military neutrality or to move Ireland closer to the Nato military alliance, and we reject any idea that further escalation of this war through increased Nato involvement would be anything other than a disaster threatening a wider European war and even nuclear conflict," he said.