Ukrainian MP says Sabina Higgins letter was 'rather misguided'

Vivienne Clarke

Ukrainian MP Kira Rudik has said that she thinks Sabina Higgins was not well informed and did not know of all the atrocities, killings and torture being carried out by Russian forces in Ukraine which would make a negotiated peace impossible.

Ms Rudyk told Newstalk Breakfast that if there was anything good in the controversy about the letter by the wife of the President to The Irish Times, it was that it had encouraged people to push against the narrative that there could be agreement with Putin.

When asked if she had been angered by the letter, Ms Rudik said that she was not “extremely angry”, but she had been concerned and disappointed.

It is so clear now that good is good and evil is evil.

“I do believe she meant well but the issue we are facing right now as a country and as a society is that there would be many more people like Mrs Sabina Higgins who think it is possible to get an agreement with Putin.

“This is a narrative that we are fighting right now because there is no fact that would say that an agreement with Putin was possible. There's an emotional wish that everybody would be good and that this is possible.

“Unfortunately we have not seen anything in the past that would prove that it is possible, this is why it is so important to clarify, to discuss and to show the strong position when a narrative like this appears.”

Ms Rudik said she hoped that Ms Higgins realised that her statement was “rather misguided”. On the day letter was published 53 men died, “53 families lost their loved ones, who had potentially been tortured," she said.

“It is so clear now that good is good and evil is evil.”