Ukrainian widow
A brave 70-year-old Ukrainian widow has told her daughter she is ready to fight the Russians and sacrifice her life to give children a chance to survive in the embattled country
Luba Healy has revealed her mum Nina has a wheelbarrow and blanket at the front door to wheel her 98-year-old nan Galina to safety as Russian forces edge closer to her hometown.
However, her mam has refused Luba's attempts to get both of them safely home to Trim, Co Meath where Luba has lived for the last 22 years.
China and Russia
China has branded a report it asked Russia to delay invading Ukraine until after the Beijing Winter Olympics “fake news” and a “very despicable” attempt to divert attention and shift blame over the war.
Foreign Ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin also repeated China’s accusations that Washington provoked the war by not ruling out Nato membership for Ukraine.
“We hope the culprit of the crisis would reflect on their role in the Ukraine crisis, take up their responsibilities, and take practical actions to ease the situation and solve the problem instead of blaming others,” Mr Wang told reporters at a daily briefing.
Russian assets frozen
EU Commissioner Mairead McGuinness has said that any Russian assets in Ireland will be frozen, and their owners prohibited from “touching them”.
Under the sanctions imposed by the EU Russian assets will be frozen, so the owners cannot profit from their sale or remove them from European territory, she told RTÉ radio’s Today with Claire Byrne show.
There was a need to ensure that the sanctions have the maximum impact so that Russian president Vladimir Putin would not have ongoing funding to continue the war against Ukraine.
Sadly this was likely to be a protracted war which was going to have a huge impact on people, she warned.
Alan Kelly resignation
The former general secretary of the Labour Party, Ray Kavanagh has expressed shock at the resignation of Alan Kelly as leader of the party.
The idea that Alan Kelly should resign “just as he was getting into his stride” post pandemic was “horrific” Mr Kavanagh told Newstalk Breakfast.
“He was elected by the party members, apparently the parliamentary party asked him to resign, and he accepted their mandate. But his mandate comes from the people.”
Gender equality
Stereotyping and resistance to change are among the obstacles to implementing recommendations of the Citizens’ Assembly on Gender Equality, a committee has been told.
Dr Catherine Day, chairperson of the assembly, said that other barriers include the perception that making changes to bring in gender equality would be too expensive.
Appearing before the Oireachtas committee to discuss the recommendations of its report, Dr Day said that members of the assembly want to see an immediate change.
Cocaine seizure
Three men were arrested at Waterford Airport last Wednesday after arriving in Ireland on a Belgian flight via the UK.
Swedish police are seeking the extradition of the three men after the aircraft they were flying on was stopped in the UK when 50kgs of cocaine with an estimated value of €3.5 million was seized.
One man was arrested by members of the UK National Crime Agency and was subsequently charged. He is now due to appear before court.
Upon arrival at Waterford Airport on Wednesday, the plane was met and
Ukraine invasion
A Ukrainian delegation is on its way to talks with Russia by helicopter and negotiations will kick off in a couple of hours, Ukrainian presidential adviser Mykhailo Podolyak said in an online post on Thursday.
Russian forces have occupied the regional administration building in Ukraine's port city of Kherson, regional governor Hennadiy Laguta said in an online post on Thursday.
Russia's defence ministry said it had captured Kherson on Wednesday, but Ukraine has said its forces continue to defend the Black Sea port of about 250,000 people.
