Taoiseach Micheál Martin has welcomed the EU decision to raise a €90bn loan to fund Ukraine, which he described as the "price of war", adding that "we hope for peace" from Russia's "devastating war".

The Fianna Fáil leader was in Brussels yesterday for a European Council meeting with EU leaders that led to them agreeing to raise a €90bn loan to fund Ukraine for the next two years, however they stopped short of adopting a proposal to use tens of billions of euro in frozen Russian assets to underwrite a long-term funding package.