Coveney says ‘deterrent to Kremlin’ needs to be strengthened including

Energy sanctions and suspending access to EU ports for Russian vessels are options for further sanctions on Moscow, Minister for Foreign Affairs Simon Coveney has said.

Mr Coveney, who indicated that Ireland would support sanctions of the Russian energy industry on Friday, said the "deterrent to the Kremlin" for continuing the war in Ukraine needs to be strengthened as the conflict continues.

He was speaking in Warsaw, after talks with his Polish counterpart, Zbigniew Rau.

“There is a possibility to go further, of course there is, whether that’s energy products like coal and oil, whether it’s access to EU ports for Russian vessels, or whether it’s lengthening the list of people who are subject to travel bans and access visas,” he told reporters in Warsaw.

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He emphasised that unity between EU nations in relation to sanctions was important, with some more reliant on gas products than others. But he added: “There is an appetite to ensure that the deterrent to the Kremlin for continuing this war needs to be strong and needs to be strengthened as the war continues.”

However, Mr Coveney continues to face pressure from within his own party ranks to do more to isolate Russia, expelling its diplomats in Ireland. In a statement on Friday, Dublin Rathdown TD Neale Richmond reiterated his call that staff at the Russian embassy be expelled.

Bloody war

"As Russia's bloody war in Ukraine rages for a third week, there is a need for Ireland to pursue the full range of sanctions against Vladimir Putin's regime, including diplomatic expulsions," he said. "This week we have seen a total of 20 Russian diplomats expelled from embassies in Bulgaria, Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia. These expulsions should be a wake-up call for the Irish Government who need to follow suit and start expelling Russian diplomats."

He said there are 31 Russian diplomats based in the embassy including two defence attachés.

Mr Coveney praised Poland's response to the crisis, which has seen the EU member state take in 2 million refugees in a period of weeks - a mass migration of enormous scale when compared to other recent conflicts, such as to the one million who fled to Turkey from Syria during the war in the middle eastern country.

“This is not an Eastern European issue, this is a war against the way of life that we have built in the EU, and the way of life that many in Ukraine rightly aspire to move towards,” he said.

“We’re with you in the context of increasing the impact of sanctions, in the context of the increased use of the European peace facility, and we’re with you in terms of the need for a collective effort in terms of supporting the extraordinary number of Ukrainian refugees fleeing war and violence and brutality, coming from Russia’s war next door to you.”

During talks between the two ministers, it’s understood there was no specific ask for supports from Ireland, but support for EU coordination and the underwriting of Polish efforts and policy initiatives are thought to have been discussed.

Mr Coveney said that Irish people have been “extraordinarily moved, but also enraged by what they have seen at the heart of Europe”. He said Ireland will use every opportunity it has, politically and diplomatically, to “make the interventions that are necessary to end this war and to support and encourage Ukraine on its European journey”.