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Russia is using hunger as a weapon in its war and an instrument of domination, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has said in a speech to the Irish parliament.
He accused President Vladimir Putin of trying to cut off vital food supplies for people in Ukraine and also further afield by preventing cargo from being exported.
In a virtual address to the Joint Houses of the Oireachtas on Wednesday morning, Mr Zelenskyy said Russia had carried out missile strikes on a Ukrainian oil depot overnight.
“This is their attribute,” he said.
“They’re destroying things that are sustaining livelihoods of people. They’re [targeting] places where were saw fuel, food storage depots, agricultural equipment and fields. They’re putting mines into the fields.
“They also have blocked all of our seaports together with our vessels which already had agricultural cargos for exports.
“Why are they doing this? Because for them hunger is also a weapon, a weapon against us, ordinary people, as an instrument of domination. Ukraine is one of the leading food supplying countries in the world.”
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Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy appears on screen as he addresses the Irish Parliament (Dail Eireann) in Dublin. PA -
In a virtual address to the Joint Houses of the Oireachtas on Wednesday morning, Mr Zelenskyy said Russia had carried out missile strikes on a Ukrainian oil depot overnight. PA -
Ukrainian citizen Oleksandra Keshkeval, who is originally from Odesa but has lived in Dublin for a decade, holds the Ukrainian flag outside Leinster House, Dublin, before Mr Zelenskyy's address. PA -
Members in the Dail give Mr Zelenskyy a standing ovation after his speech. PA -
Sally Hasson watches TV at home in Dublin as Mr Zelenskyy appears on screen. Reuters -
Crowds gather outside Leinster House, Dublin. PA -
Patsy Sheehan, from Limerick, protests outside Leinster House, Dublin against Vladimir Putin's invasion of Ukraine. PA -
Diana Flaherty watches Mr Zelenskyy's speech at her home in Dublin. Reuters
He said Russia’s actions in Ukraine were a threat to food supplies in countries around the world including those in Africa and Asia, and accused Moscow of “deliberately provoking a food crisis”.
“There will be a shortage of food and the prices will go up and this is the reality for the millions of people who are hungry and it will be more difficult for them to feed their families, especially in North Africa.”
Russian troops are targeting Odesa with missiles in a bid to cut the strategic port city off from the outside world. Ukraine is the fifth largest exporter of wheat, accounting for 7 per cent of sales globally in 2019, and the Black Sea port of Odesa handles around 60 per cent of the country’s sea cargo.
Mr Zelenskyy warned dwindling food exports from Ukraine risked causing “political turbulence” in countries which rely heavily on the former Soviet nation to feed citizens. This scenario, he said, could lead possibly lead to the mass exodus of refugees from their homelands in search of food.
He also touched on the siege of Mariupol, accusing the Russians of “bombing 24/7” and blocking humanitarian cargos attempting to reach the stranded residents. Around 160,000 residents who remain in the Sea of Azov port have for weeks endured harsh conditions after access to water and electricity was cut off and the city’s food supplies dwindled.
“While it was snowing people could melt the snow to get water, now they don’t have even that,” Mr Zelenskyy said.
He said residents had been forced to bury the dead “in the yards of their condominiums” or had to leave bodies rotting in streets and bombed out building.
“They are bombing 24/7, air strikes, bombings in Mariupol. There is no single house left intact.”
He urged Ireland’s political leaders to use their influence to convince EU nations to usher in tougher sanctions to halt the Russian war machine.
Brussels is expected to announce a further package of sanctions against Russia on Wednesday. The European Commission has proposed a ban on coal imports from Russia and a full transaction ban on four key Russian banks as part of its fifth round of punitive measures.
Mr Zelenskyy was given a standing ovation after delivering his speech, and Ireland's Prime Minister Micheal Martin delivered a message to Ukrainian refugees who have in recent weeks sought sanctuary in Ireland.
“To those who have arrived here from Ukraine, I hope you find in Ireland safe harbour and friendship for as long as you need it. In the meantime, our home is your home,” he said.
Mr Zelenskyy's speech to Irish politicians came after he used an address to the UN Security Council on Tuesday to call for an inquiry similar to the Nuremburg trials to be set up to investigate possible Russian war crimes in Ukraine. He said civilians in towns around Kyiv had been tortured, shot in the back of the head, thrown down wells, blown up with grenades in their apartments and crushed to death by tanks while in cars.
Those who carried out the killings and those who gave the orders “must be brought to justice immediately for war crimes” in front of a tribunal similar to the one established at Nuremberg after the Second World War, he said.
“Today, as a result of Russia’s actions in our country, in Ukraine, the most terrible war crimes we’ve seen since the end of the Second World War are being committed,” he said in the online address.
“Russian troops are deliberately destroying Ukrainian cities to ashes with artillery and air strikes. They are deliberately blocking cities, creating mass starvation. They deliberately shoot columns of civilians on the road trying to escape from the hostilities.
“They even deliberately blow up shelters where civilians hide from air strikes.
“The massacre in our city of Bucha is unfortunately only one of many examples of what the occupiers have been doing on our land for the past 41 days.”
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Nato foreign ministers meet in Brussels to discuss the latest in the continuing Russia-Ukraine war. AFP -
People take part in a protest against the transport of cargo to Russia and Belarus near the Polish-Belarusian border crossing in Koroszczyn, eastern Poland. EPA -
A Ukrainian naval vessel, thought to be the ‘Donbas’ and a nearby building burn in the besieged city of Mariupol. AP -
Bucha resident Tetiana Ustymenko weeps over the grave of her son, buried in the garden of her house, in Bucha, north-west of Kyiv. AFP -
People charge their mobile phones in a public building in Bucha. AFP -
People from Mariupol leave a train to be taken to temporary residences in Nizhny Novgorod, Russia. AP -
Vladyslava Liubarets, a Bucha resident, cries as she hugs her sister whom she had not seen since the beginning of the Russian invasion, in Bucha, the town which was retaken by the Ukrainian army. EPA -
Local citizen Oleksandr, 55, looks at the grave of his neighbour in the backyard of his private house in Hostomel in Kyiv. EPA -
Debris of a rocket missile on the field near Kyiv. EPA -
The mother of Ukrainian soldier Lubomyr Hudzeliak, who was killed during Russia's invasion of Ukraine, mourns during his funeral in the western Ukrainian city of Lviv. AFP -
A woman takes care of a baby at a shelter in the Ukrainian city of Severodonetsk in Donbas region. AFP -
Residents gather outside a shelter in the city of Severodonetsk. AFP -
Residents in eastern Ukraine, including the city of Severodonetsk in Donbas region, have been asked by their government to leave 'now' or 'risk death'. AFP -
A young girl with her dog arrives at a centre for the displaced in Zaporizhzhia, north-west of Mariupol. AFP -
A damaged ambulance in Hostomel, on the outskirts of Kyiv. Reuters -
A bomb crater left behind by Russia's attack on the Ukrainian village of Demydiv, on the outskirts of Kyiv. Reuters -
Russian attacks have reduced Hotel Ukraine in Chernihiv to debris. Reuters -
Oleksii Shcherbo, 98, near his burnt house in the village of Sloboda, on the outskirts of Chernihiv. Reuters -
Residents walk past destroyed Russian military machinery on the street, in Bucha, the town which was retaken by the Ukrainian army, north-west of Kyiv. EPA -
Damaged National flags flutter in the wind on a cemetry of Chernihiv city which was blocked by Russian troops for a long time. EPA -
Demonstrators lie down on the ground in tribute to the people killed in Russia's war against Ukraine, in Berlin, Germany. AP -
A Ukrainian firefighter works at the site of a burning fuel storage facility ignited by an air strike, in Dnipropetrovsk. Reuters -
A woman before and after she was removed by rescuers from debris after a military strike on the town of Rubizhne, Luhansk. Reuters -
People wait for help to evacuate Derhachi. Reuters -
Pope Francis, in Vatican, holds a Ukrainian flag given to him by a delegation from the town of Bucha, where dozens of bodies had been found. EPA -
State emergency servicemen clear shells near Chernigiv, northern Ukraine. AFP -
US war veteran Steven Straub shows his tattoo of the Ukrainian flag while on patrol near Buda-Babynetska, north of Kyiv, days after Russian forces retreated from the area. AFP -
Candles are arranged in the shape of Ukraine by the monument to the poet Taras Shevchenko in the western city Lviv. AFP -
A teddy bear hangs from a tree branch outside an apartment building in Borodyanka, Kyiv oblast. AP -
A woman carries her cat as she walks past buildings that were destroyed by Russian shelling, in Borodyanka. Reuters -
Dmitriy Evtushkov, 25, points to his picture in a primary school album retrieved from the rubble of a block of flats. AP -
Technicians try to fix the internet in Bucha. AP -
A smashed mobile phone lies next to a Russian army ration book in Bucha. AP -
A woman and children after their arrival at a centre for displaced persons in Zaporizhzhia, about 200 kilometres north-west of Mariupol. AFP -
A man leaves a damaged pharmacy after a bombing that killed several civilians, in Mykolaiv. AP -
Ukrainian soldiers sing a patriotic song with buildings in the background that were destroyed during fighting in Borodyanka. AP -
Borodyanka residents carry humanitarian aid packages. Reuters -
Elderly Ukrainians shelter in a basement in Kharkiv, in eastern Ukraine. EPA -
Destroyed apartment buildings in Borodyanka. Reuters -
Relatives and friends are overwhelmed with emotions as they stand next to the coffin of Anatoly German during his funeral. AP
