Willie O’Dea, a former Fianna Fail defense minister, slammed the remarks, accusing her of putting Volodymyr Zelensky, the Ukrainian president, “on the same moral footing” as Vladimir Putin. Fianna Fail senator Malcolm Byrne tweeted that the publication of the statements on the president’s official website was “disgusting”. Higgins’ comments, originally contained in a letter to The Irish Times, were removed from president.ie after Yuri Filatov, Russia’s ambassador to Ireland, said they made sense. “He is against the war. We are all against war,” he said