Coveney rejects Lavrov example after he cites Ireland while discussing Ukraine invasion

Minister for Foreign Affairs Simon Coveney said that Ireland should not be used as an example by Russia in a bid to "justify an unjustifiable war" in Ukraine.

He was speaking after public comments by Russian foreign minister Sergei Lavrov on Friday.

Mr Lavrov claimed that Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskiy demanded that people in his country who feel they are part of Russian culture should “go away from Ukraine”.

He added: "For example if in Ireland, if they prohibited English language what would the UK think about it. Or if in Belgium they would have forbidden French language I can't imagine that a law like that would last for a couple of days really, hours."

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Mr Lavrov claimed that the West only sees the situation “through the prism of their own… interests” and that “when language, cultural, religious rights of many millions of people in Ukraine are being violated you focus not on human rights, you talk about a so-called democratic regime.”

Mr Coveney posted a link to Mr Lavrov’s remarks on Twitter and wrote: “Don’t bring Ireland into an argument trying to justify an unjustifiable war.”

He said Ireland and the UK “are an example of how two countries, with a difficult past, found a way to shape and sustain a peace process, guaranteeing an absence of violence”.

Mr Coveney also said: “Ireland will maintain solidarity with the people of Ukraine and do what we can to support them through this unjustifiable war.”