Defence Minister Micheal Martin has been urged to call in the Russian ambassador to explain what three of the country’s ships were doing off the coast of Ireland over recent days.
It comes after pictures emerged yesterday of the Russian-registered ships off our west and southwest coast last week.
Former Minister for Foreign Affairs Charlie Flanagan has described the activities of the Russian ships as “suspicious”, adding that the Tanaiste should seek answers from Russian officials here.
The images released by the Air Corps revealed the three vessels, the UMKA, an off-shore supply vessel, the BAHKTEMIR, a salvage and rescue ship and the FORTUNA, a pipelay/crane vessel, first departed from the Russian port of Murmansk on February 23 on a course for the Equatorial Guinea port of Malobo, Africa.
At least two of the Russian ships were first sighted off the Galway coast late last week in the vicinity of a newly opened sub-sea communications cable.
Cork South West TD Michael Collins said that the Russian Ambassador Yuriy Filatov must explain what the ships were doing in Irish waters.
“Certainly, I think the Russian Ambassador should be called in to answer for these activities and to prove to Irish officials that this was just an issue of weather and them having no place to pull in for shelter,” he said.
Deputy Collins said Ireland has left itself vulnerable to Russian ships — with no suitable aircraft to monitor them.
He said the Kremlin should have informed Irish officials about what was happening.
“The Russians are saying that it might have been due to weather,” he said.
“That they had to come in closer to the usual areas...but at the end of the day that surely could be communicated to the Irish and the Irish Navy and the Irish Government — and it looks like it wasn’t.”
In January of last year, the presence of Russian warships in an area used by Irish fishermen almost caused a standoff at sea.
Meanwhile, security expert Senator Tom Clonan told Newstalk that the ships spotted over the past week are well-known to the Irish defence community.
He said one of them has a diving platform and is carrying deep-sea submersibles and warned that the undersea cables are “really critical”, carrying around one-third of the world’s online data.
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