Ireland South MEP Mick Wallace has attacked Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskiy for appearing in fashion and lifestyle magazine Vogue.
Mr Zelenskiy and his wife Olena Zelenska were photographed and gave an interview for a digital edition of the US publication.
In the interview, the couple described the difficulties for their children being separated from their father as a result of Vladimir Putin’s invasion.
On Twitter, Mr Wallace reposted a magazine photograph of the couple embracing, claiming the Ukrainian leader was “safe” while “he sends the less privileged to war”.
“They’re [sic] reports of Ukraine losing a 1000 soldiers a day, but seems #Zelenskiy is safe, as he sends the less privileged to War to facilitate the #US #NATO agenda, while an inept and compromised #EU dances to US tune, at the expense of their citizens with self Defeating Sanctions…” he wrote.
In the Vogue interview, the Ukrainian first lady expresses her doubts about being able to survive the war if she was forced to be apart from their children.
Her husband “is having a much harder time in this regard. He suffers. And then my kids do, too, because they can’t see each other,” she said.
Mr Zelenskiy said he was “worried sick” about his family but insisted he did not want them “put in danger”.
Mr Wallace and Dublin MEP Clare Daly have been controversial and outspoken critics of EU and Nato policy towards Ukraine.
Before the outbreak of the war, Ms Daly said the Russian troop build-up on Ukraine’s border was “clearly defensive” and that it would not invade.
Following the invasion she came out against Russian sanctions and voted against condemning the invasion, positions that have earned her praise in Russian media.
Ukraine’s security agency has placed Ms Daly on a list of public figures who promote Russian propaganda, alongside figures including French far-right leader Marine Le Pen, former US Democratic presidential nominee Tulsi Gabbard and firebrand journalist Glenn Greenwald.
Ms Daly, the only Irish figure listed, accused Ukraine of carrying out a “smear campaign against international figures who refuse to toe the line”.