{"id":210374,"date":"2025-12-01T22:42:10","date_gmt":"2025-12-01T22:42:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/210374\/"},"modified":"2025-12-01T22:42:10","modified_gmt":"2025-12-01T22:42:10","slug":"zelenskiy-to-arrive-at-dublin-airport-tonight-for-first-official-visit-to-ireland-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/210374\/","title":{"rendered":"Zelenskiy to arrive at Dublin Airport tonight for first official visit to Ireland \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

Ukrainian<\/a> president Volodymyr Zelenskiy<\/a> will fly into Dublin Airport<\/a> this evening, beginning his first official visit to Ireland before a day of engagements tomorrow.<\/p>\n

Mr Zelenskiy will arrive in Dublin at a \u201cpivotal\u201d moment for his country, with Ukrainian negotiators in Washington to discuss a possible peace deal and US envoy Steve Witkoff due in Moscow to meet Russian president Vladimir Putin tomorrow. Mr Zelenskiy is in Paris today meeting the French President Emmanuel Macron.<\/p>\n

Mr Zelenskiy will pay a courtesy call to President Catherine Connolly at \u00c1ras an Uachtar\u00e1in tomorrow morning before travelling to Government Buildings for meetings with Taoiseach Miche\u00e1l Martin<\/a> and a trade forum with T\u00e1naiste and Minister for Finance Simon Harris and Minister for Foreign Affairs Helen McEntee.<\/p>\n

There will be a press conference at Government Buildings before Mr Zelenskiy is expected to deliver an address to a joint sitting of the D\u00e1il and Seanad.<\/p>\n

Mr Zelenskiy is likely to meet with representatives of the Ukrainian community in Ireland during the visit. More than 120,000 Ukrainians have been granted permission to stay in Ireland since the Russian invasion of their country in 2022. It is estimated that about 80,000 remain in the country.<\/p>\n

[\u00a0Plan to phase out State-funded commercial accommodation for Ukrainians droppedOpens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n

\"MicheálMiche\u00e1l Martin with Volodymyr Zelenskiy on a previous meeting in Ukraine. Photograph: Irish Embassy in Kyiv <\/p>\n

Speaking ahead of the visit, Mr Martin said he has met with Mr Zelenskiy many times, including in Kyiv, but added, \u201cI particularly look forward to greeting him on this first official visit of a Ukrainian President to Ireland.\u201d<\/p>\n

He said the president\u2019s visit \u201ccomes at a critical time for Ukraine and Europe, with efforts to bring just and lasting peace to Ukraine ongoing\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cI look forward to discussing with President Zelenskiy the ways in which Ireland can support these efforts and how we can ensure that Ukraine comes to the negotiating table in as strong a position as possible.\u201d<\/p>\n

T\u00e1naiste Simon Harris said the Government was looking forward to engaging with Mr Zelenskiy. Various security measures re in place, which is \u201cright and proper\u201d, he said.<\/p>\n

It is \u201can important visit\u201d that shows Ireland\u2019s solidarity with Ukraine, Mr Harris said. <\/p>\n

\u201cAs we prepare to take up the presidency of the Council of the European Union next year, it\u2019s a chance to get the latest from president Zelenskiy in terms of how he sees things progressing,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n

\u201cWe all want to see an end to war, but how peace comes about matters. It has to be a just peace.,\u201d the T\u00e1naiste said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe aggressor must pay for the massive destruction and damage that has been done to Ukraine,\u201d he added. <\/p>\n

Mr Zelenskiy addressed the D\u00e1il by video-link in April 2022 in the immediate aftermath of the Russian invasion. <\/p>\n

Security will be tight for the visit, and there is expected to be traffic disruption in central Dublin with the closure of streets around Leinster House. <\/p>\n

The Irish Aviation Authority has declared a \u201cno drone zone\u201d over Dublin at the request of the Department of Justice, citing \u201cnational security reasons\u201d.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, EU defence ministers are meeting in Brussels today amid continuing divisions about an EU funding deal for Ukraine to enable it to continue fighting next year. There are proposals to use the proceeds of seized Russian assets as a loan to Ukraine, but some member states, notably Belgium, remain opposed to the plan. Arriving at the meeting in Brussels this morning, the EU\u2019s foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas said this week could be \u201cpivotal\u201d for diplomacy on Ukraine. <\/p>\n

But Mr Zelenskiy is also under pressure at home, after the resignation of a key aide, Andriy Yermak, last week after his home was searched as part of a corruption investigation. <\/p>\n

[\u00a0Ukraine\u2019s Zelenskiy to visit Ireland amid ongoing efforts to end war with RussiaOpens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskiy will fly into Dublin Airport this evening, beginning his first official visit to Ireland…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":210375,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[41],"tags":[9,10,26,13,14,6,11,12,15,16,5,550,7,8,2264,2263,2267,65,66,67],"class_list":{"0":"post-210374","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-world","8":"tag-breaking-news","9":"tag-breakingnews","10":"tag-dublin-airport","11":"tag-featured-news","12":"tag-featurednews","13":"tag-headlines","14":"tag-latest-news","15":"tag-latestnews","16":"tag-main-news","17":"tag-mainnews","18":"tag-news","19":"tag-russia","20":"tag-top-stories","21":"tag-topstories","22":"tag-ukraine-crisis","23":"tag-vladimir-putin","24":"tag-volodymyr-zelenskiy","25":"tag-world","26":"tag-world-news","27":"tag-worldnews"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@ie\/115646729430997170","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/210374","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=210374"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/210374\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/210375"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=210374"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=210374"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=210374"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}