{"id":26734,"date":"2026-08-11T05:12:07","date_gmt":"2026-08-11T05:12:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ukraine\/26734\/"},"modified":"2026-08-11T05:12:07","modified_gmt":"2026-08-11T05:12:07","slug":"ireland-could-use-eu-presidency-to-push-for-peace-between-ukraine-and-russia-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ukraine\/26734\/","title":{"rendered":"Ireland could use EU presidency to push for peace between Ukraine and Russia \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">Sir, \u2013 Ireland\u2019s EU presidency is an opportunity for peace. Irish diplomats after 1955 helped contain the Cold War. Using Ireland\u2019s <a href=\"https:\/\/www.irishtimes.com\/tags\/united-nations-un\/\" target=\"_self\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" title=\"https:\/\/www.irishtimes.com\/tags\/united-nations-un\/\">UN<\/a> seat and neutrality, foreign ministers such as Frank Aiken did not take sides in great power conflict, acting instead as disinterested brokers in a way that demonstrated our new independence on the world stage. Europe needs that spirit of diplomatic autonomy today. <\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">Chest-thumping talk of solidarity with <a href=\"https:\/\/www.irishtimes.com\/tags\/ukraine-crisis\" target=\"_self\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" title=\"https:\/\/www.irishtimes.com\/tags\/ukraine-crisis\">Ukraine<\/a> from Europe was excusable from 2023 to 2025. Today, we see that \u201csolidarity\u201d amounted to funding a US proxy war with the world\u2019s largest nuclear power. Whether this war of attrition ends tomorrow or in four more years, Ukraine will remain partitioned. <\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">We can\u2019t wait that long. Bombing crowded restaurants in Moscow may look like justice to zealots this side of the Danube, but such atrocities put pressure on the Kremlin which endangers us all. <\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">Similar pressures apply in the White House. US president <a href=\"https:\/\/www.irishtimes.com\/tags\/donald-trump\/\" target=\"_self\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" title=\"https:\/\/www.irishtimes.com\/tags\/donald-trump\/\">Donald Trump<\/a>,  promised that he \u201cwould end that war within 24 hours\u201d. Busy as he is now with <a href=\"https:\/\/www.irishtimes.com\/tags\/iran\/\" target=\"_self\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" title=\"https:\/\/www.irishtimes.com\/tags\/iran\/\">Iran<\/a>, we can see that Ukraine has become a problem. <\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">Leaving aside the dead  and the economic damage to Europe (soaring energy costs have hobbled German industry), the risks are growing. This year has seen security scares in Belarus, Moldova, Lithuania, Poland, Bulgaria and Romania. The last four are in Nato.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">Ireland\u2019s recent foreign interventions tend to be performative nonsense, concentrating on regions where we have no business or influence, but Ukraine affects us directly, from the 84,100 refugees living here to the cost of heating our homes. <\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">Our presidency ends on December 31st. What a diplomatic coup if Ireland could use that time to broker a Christmas truce between Ukraine and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.irishtimes.com\/tags\/russia\" target=\"_self\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" title=\"https:\/\/www.irishtimes.com\/tags\/russia\">Russia<\/a>. \u2013 Yours, etc,<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">AIDAN HARTE,<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">Naas,<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">Co Kildare.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Sir, \u2013 Ireland\u2019s EU presidency is an opportunity for peace. Irish diplomats after 1955 helped contain the Cold&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":26735,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[43,78,42,25,411,832,32],"class_list":["post-26734","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-news","tag-donald-trump","tag-eu","tag-iran","tag-russia","tag-ukraine-crisis","tag-united-nations-un","tag-us"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ukraine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26734","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ukraine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ukraine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ukraine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ukraine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=26734"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ukraine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26734\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ukraine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/26735"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ukraine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=26734"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ukraine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=26734"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ukraine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=26734"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}