Billy Kelleher: 'Our colleagues in Ukraine asked us to visit ... we needed to look them in the eye'

Billy Kelleher MEP and Senator Timmy Dooley speak with Andriy Sadovy, Mayor of Lviv, and colleague.

Crossing the EU frontier, and entering an active war-zone is something I never thought I would be doing. 

I’ve a wife and three children living at home in Cork but seeing the plight of the Ukrainian people over the last 12 days convinced me that I needed to see the impact of the conflict and hear their concerns first hand. 

Back in 2017, I did the same when I travelled to the Occupied Territories to better understand the plight of the besieged Palestinian people.

Lviv, Ukraine’s sixth largest city is just 72 kilometres from the Polish border;  72km from the European Union — the Union that, despite its flaws, has preserved peace amongst its members since its foundation.

Yet, there is now an active war on our doorstep. 

While the fighting is some 400 kilometres to the east of Lviv, the signs of war are everywhere. 

The first thing you notice when you enter Ukraine is the widespread wearing of military fatigues, the fortifications being erected in what should be suburban communities, and, of course, the endless convoys of people entering and exiting this former Hapsburg city.

On a daily basis, Lviv is the hub for hundreds of thousands refugees fleeing the Russian invasion, and towards safety in the EU.

Why did we go? We went because our colleagues in Ukraine asked us to visit.

There are a number of liberal parties operating in Ukraine, including the party of president Zelensky, Servant of the People who joined our European party, the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe (ALDE), last week.

Timmy Dooley as ALDE co-president, and I, as a member of the European Parliament, heard their requests and visited in person. 

While we held some of our meetings on Zoom, we felt we needed to see first-hand the challenges on the ground, and to look the Ukrainian officials, and indeed the Ukrainian people, in the eye.

On our six-hour visit to Lviv, we met with the Mayor of Lviv City, the Governor of the Lviv region, and local members of the Ukrainian parliament. 

Ukrainian volunteers prepare food for displaced people outside Lviv railway station, in the western Ukraine city, last week. Picture: Bernat Armangue/AP

On a human level, they were like ghosts. Nearly all of them were surviving on barely two to three hours’ sleep per day, and most had not seen their own loved ones in days due to the staggering volume of work they were doing.

Yet, there is a steeliness in their eyes, a determination to never give in or give up, that is simply powerful to observe. T

he mayor and governor are from different parties, but that all went out the window the day the Russians invaded their homeland. 

There is a unity of purpose — a will to win and an unshakable desire to protect their country and their families.

It makes me believe very deeply that Russia will never occupy Ukraine in the long-term.

However, in the here and now, the situation is grim; as the UNHCR has stated, about 1.5 million Ukrainians have left their country so far, with an expected two to three million more set to follow them. 

Convoys of people walking to Lviv, stopping there for a night, and then making the final journey to Poland can be seen on all the main roads.

The Polish authorities have been doing a stellar job but they simply cannot keep up the volume of people on the move. 

This is the largest movement of refugees in Europe since the end of the Second World War. The EU cannot leave member states on their own to support these victims of Russian aggression.

More official border crossings, where people can be processed in a timely and dignified manner, must be established immediately. 

At present, there are only six border crossings but this clearly isn’t enough. 

We heard desperate stories of people being in a queue to cross into the EU for over two days — many of whom were young children or the elderly; the freezing conditions of late winter in Ukraine cannot be underestimated.

We must also look at the processing system. I believe that Ukrainians fleeing should be quickly brought over the border and then the logistics of entering the EU can be dealt with. 

We can have food and shelter made available to them immediately rather than having vulnerable people standing on the side of the road for days on end.

People fleeing Ukraine wait in line to enter Poland through the border crossing at Korczowa, Poland, on Friday. Picture: Visar Kryeziu/AP

Funding will be crucial. There is a tsunami coming. Member State national budgets, and the budgets of international NGOs, such as the Red Cross, will be swallowed up very quickly and I worry that many refugees will not get the supports they are entitled to under international law. 

We urgently need the EU Commission to come forward with a proposal either to reallocate existing EU funds or to raise new money.

All member states will be required to take in refugees, and I am proud of how EU countries, including Ireland, have responded. 

However, our eastern member states will be hardest hit and they must be fully supported to ensure proper integration and support for our Ukrainian brothers and sisters.

We have a very limited amount of time before this humanitarian crisis becomes insurmountable. 

The EU has the capacity and the resources to get ahead of the tsunami, but it must move quickly. 

What I saw was a human tragedy unfolding before my very eyes; Europe must meet this tsunami head-on and look after these refugees with dignity and respect.