Ireland Protests Plans for Russian Warship Shooting Exercises

DUBLIN – Dublin protests warship deployment plans Russia for large-scale combat exercises near Irish territorial waters. Moscow’s move was judged to have gone too far when tensions related to the crisis Ukraine felt throughout Europe.

The protest was conveyed by Foreign Minister Simon Coveney while speaking to reporters in Brussels on Monday.

Coveney said he had warned the Russian ambassador in Dublin that the combat drills were not accepted by the Irish government.

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However, he acknowledged that officials did not have the power to prevent this from happening as it would take place in international waters.

Russian warships will participate in the firing drills that are part of a wider series of separate war games in the Mediterranean and North Seas, as well as the Northeast Atlantic and Pacific Oceans.

More than 140 warships and support ships as well as about 10,000 troops are planned to take part in the February maneuvers.

Coveney acknowledged that the planned combat drills of Russian warships would take place in international waters, which is 240km (150 miles) off the southwest coast of Ireland. However, he noted that the waters are included in his country’s exclusive economic zone (EEZ).

“Russia, under the International Law of the Sea, can of course conduct military exercises in international waters, but it’s a fact that they choose to do so on the western border, if you like, off the coast of Ireland,” Coveney said.

“This is not the time to escalate military activity and tension in the context of what is happening with Ukraine right now, so I think it is important to inform my colleagues of that intention,” he was quoted as saying. Russia Today, Tuesday (25/1/2022).

The minister said the European Union was ready to impose a series of sanctions and severe restrictions on Moscow if its armed forces carried out an attack on Ukraine.

Coveney’s remarks come amid concerns expressed by Western officials in recent weeks that Russia was amassing its troops and hardware along a common border before invading Ukraine. The Kremlin has denied the intention of the invasion many times.

On the other hand, Moscow accuses the West of creating a precarious situation in the Eastern European country. In November, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov warned that, in Ukraine, more troops and equipment were pooling in the contact lines in the Donbass, supported by a growing number of Western instructors.

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