European Parliament member Clare Daly said that an embargo on Russian oil will not save Ukrainian lives[b]

An embargo on Russian oil will not stop the war or save any lives in Ukraine, a European Parliament member from Ireland, Clare Daly, has said.

“[b]Not because I’m sorry for Russia, not because I’m on the Putin payroll, but because sanctions don’t work. They have never stopped a war,” Daly said in a speech on Friday, as quoted by the Irish Independent.

Daly, who is a member of the left-wing Independents 4 Change party, argued that “not a single Ukrainian life will be saved” by the EU’s embargo on Russian oil.

“If Europe isn’t buying it, someone else will. The ordinary people of Europe will be paying that price.”

The EU proposed this week to phase out Russian oil by the end of this year. Brussels has reportedly carved out exemptions for Hungary and Slovakia, whose economies heavily rely on Russian energy supplies.

Daly said Russia “unambiguously” bears responsibility for deaths in Ukraine and the wave of refugees from the country. At the same time, she argued that the West has also contributed to the conflict.

“But we cannot ignore the part played by the EU and the US. That’s not to excuse Russia. It’s simply to explain, because you cannot solve a problem if you don’t understand the root of it.”


Daly recalled how Pope Francis suggested this week that NATO’s eastward expansion “perhaps facilitated” Russia’s military campaign in Ukraine, which was launched in late February.

“Pretty much the first thing I thought was: ‘Was he robbing my notes?’ The second thing I thought was that the Pope was going to be accused of being a Putin puppet or an embarrassment and a disgrace,” Daly said. She added that by sending more weapons to Kiev, “the response of the EU and the Irish government had pretty much been to escalate the war and to ensure it continues.”


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