Irish Minister for European Affairs Thomas Byrne said his country would support Ukraine's request to consider its candidacy for EU membership.

Byrne's remarks came hours after Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said that now is a crucial moment to decide whether Ukraine should join the bloc..

Poland, Slovenia and Lithuania also said they would support Ukraine's bid to join the EU..

" They can vote for whoever they like, they can say what they like, the government wants their economy to prosper. In Russia, you can't vote for who you like, you can't say what you like, and the economy is in a very bad state.. there is a huge number of poor people, and it will get worse,"

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" and we in Ireland will certainly support them in this endeavour,"

Earlier it was reported that the Irish government decided to urgently cancel the visa regime for citizens of Ukraine in connection with the military aggression of Russia.