Ireland’s Foreign Minister Simon Coveney is visiting Kyiv.

Mr Coveney is visiting areas in the Ukrainian capital directly affected by the Russian invasion and meeting Ukraine’s foreign minister Dmytro Kuleba and defence minister Oleksii Reznikov.

He is the first foreign minister on the UN Security Council to visit Kyiv since the war began.

A statement from the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) said: “His discussions with the Ukrainian government will focus on how Ireland can continue to provide political, security and humanitarian support to Ukraine, assist Ukraine in its application for EU candidate status, take forward further EU sanctions on Russia and hold Russia to account for its brutal and unjustified invasion.”

Ireland has provided 20 million euro in humanitarian aid to the country and Ukrainian refugees in neighbouring counties, and 33 million euro in non-lethal assistance for the Ukrainian military through the European Peace Facility.

The DFA statement added: “Ireland has been at the forefront of putting in place a robust EU sanctions regime and of supporting international mechanisms to hold Russia to account for grave violations of international humanitarian law, including referring the situation in Ukraine to the International Criminal Court.”