For Zelenskyy, a trip abroad is never a relief from the problems in Ukraine

While Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy spoke in Dublin about hope and the future, it was hard to ignore events elsewhere.

Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy inspects the guard of honour at Government Buildings in Dublin. Picture: Liam McBurney/PA

The sunflower, aside from being the national flower of Ukraine, is a symbol of hope.

That there were sunflowers in vases around both Government Buildings and Leinster House for the visit of Volodymyr Zelenskyy spoke as much to the latter as the former, though while Mr Zelenskyy spoke at length throughout his day in Dublin about his hopes for a free and peaceful Ukraine, the pressure he is under cannot be discounted.

At home in his war-torn country, Russian soldiers claimed to have taken the Ukrainian city of Pokrovsk, an important logistics hub in the eastern Donetsk region. While US envoy Steve Witkoff and Donald Trump's son-in-law Jared Kushner were in the Kremlin, Russian president Vladimir Putin accused European governments of sabotaging the peace process and declared that “European demands are not acceptable to Russia".

At home, Zelenskyy's chief of staff Andrii Yermak, whose residence was searched earlier in the day by anti-corruption investigators, resigned last Friday. Mr Yermak has been Ukraine’s lead negotiator in peace talks with Russia and the US, and he has been a trusted confidante of Mr Zelenskyy for years.

Mr Zelenskyy is in the small cohort of political leaders for whom a foreign trip is more a sharp reminder and not a relief from the problems at home, so while much of his focus as he spoke in Dublin was on hope and the future, it was hard to ignore events elsewhere.

Changing narrative

At the beginning of the war, there was a narrative of him; an unlikely president thrust into a war with a nuclear superpower. 

While that characterisation is accurate, he is now an unlikely president who has led that war effort for three years, seen tens of thousands of his countrymen and women die, with millions more fleeing and is now forced into a parallel role of international statesman. He is forced to travel from government to government and parliament to parliament asking for aid, for money and munitions, for support, for solidarity, even if housing and feeding the refugees from the first war on the European continent in this lifetime was becoming inconvenient.

At the beginning of the war, when Russia's invasion of Ukraine rightly raised the ire of the world, Mr Zelenskyy was hailed as something of action hero when he rejected offers of safe harbour elsewhere, telling reporters: "The fight is here. I need ammunition, not a ride." 

One suspects that the former comedian who once performed in a Drogheda theatre would much prefer to be in Kyiv, but the realpolitik demands that he drum up support, and if that means learning how to pronounce "ceann comhairle" (written phonetically in Cyrillic on his speech), then so be it.

Courtesy call to the Áras

President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskyy, accompanied by First Lady Olena Zelenska, meets President Catherine Connolly at Áras an Uachtaráin. Picture: Sasko Lazarov/RollingNews.ie

Mr Zelenskyy's first port of call of the day was with President Catherine Connolly, and despite its billing as a test for the new President, the courtesy call was just that — courteous. 

While those journalists who had not travelled to Áras an Uachtaráin waited in the cold, Mr Zelenskyy's motorcade sped from the Phoenix Park to Government Buildings, its 25-minute travel time even with blue lights a testament to the capital's traffic levels.

Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy shakes hands with Taoiseach Micheál Martin at  Government Buildings in Dublin. Picture: Liam McBurney/PA

Upon arrival, he was greeted by Taoiseach Micheál Martin who would pledge support and condemn Russian aggression once more, but a question from RTÉ's Paul Cunningham — who had learned to welcome the president in his native tongue — hit on the issue facing Mr Zelenskyy: for all of his hope, he may face a bad peace deal now or a worse one down the line. 

In response, Mr Zelenskyy emphasised he believes his country must be at the table when its future is decided, as well as giving a timely reminder that those in Ukraine are not a debating point or a nuisance to a framework and that any peace must work for them.

"Because, you see, it's not an experiment for us," Mr Zelenskyy said. "We're talking about our people, our living people."

TDs scramble to shake hands

By the time he made his way to the Dáil chamber, the Ukrainian president had met with Ceann Comhairle Verona Murphy and Seanad Cathaoirleach Mark Daly. By the time he had made it to the podium, he had met at least 25 more TDs as members scrambled to shake his hand. 

In a speech that played on Ireland's shared past as a colony, Mr Zelenskyy thanked the Irish people for "never losing faith" in his country, though his accented English was enough to wake the AI in some TDs' phones, one member momentarily scrambling to silence Siri as she asked for further details.

Speaking entirely in English, Mr Zelenskyy's mission was clear — to shore up Irish support and solidarity, to build another alliance in the continent for a peace and rebuilding deal, and ask Ireland to use its position as EU president from next July to accelerate EU accession for Kyiv.

Words of hope, indeed. But so many reasons for fear.