Ireland can play a pivotal role in securing lasting peace in Ukraine

Our voice is one of peace and it is rooted in a history of overcoming disempowerment and the construction of reconciliation through dialogue, writes Senator Aubrey McCarthy 

Rescuers search for victims after a drone hit a residential building during Russia's night missile and drone attack in Kyiv on Saturday. Picture: AP/Efrem Lukatsky

Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s first official visit to Ireland comes at the most critical and finely balanced phase for Ukraine’s peace negotiations.

His decision to come to Ireland at this pivotal juncture underscores the important role we have played as a country in supporting Ukraine’s right to self-defence, while remaining firmly within the limits of our neutrality.