Ireland accused of ‘direct’ role in war over plan to help EU train Ukrainian army in landmine clearing

Ireland’s participation in an EU training mission for the Ukrainian army next month will mean it is “clearly involved in the ongoing conflict in a direct way”, Russian ambassador to Ireland Yuriy Filatov has said.

Ireland is to provide training to help Ukraine to clear its land of mines as part of a joint European Union military training mission agreed last week.

Following a meeting of EU foreign ministers in Luxembourg, Minister for Foreign Affairs and Defence Simon Coveney said the Defence Forces could offer “niche skillsets that are helpful to Ukraine” related to “managing explosives” and “counter-IED”.

“There are unfortunately many, many thousands of landmines placed across Ukraine,” he said.

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“I hope Ireland can be part of helping to train Ukrainian military to deal with [these] safely, to try to prevent the kind of horrific injuries that many civilians and indeed military personnel could suffer.

“Ireland does have expertise in this area – we’ve been involved in an EU training mission in Mali, for example, specifically around demining.”

The decision led to heated exchanges in the Dáil on Tuesday, during which People before Profit TD Paul Murphy said the Government “very cynically used Putin’s imperialist and brutal invasion of Ukraine to drive a coach and horses through what is left of the idea of neutrality”.

In response, Taoiseach Micheál Martin said Ukrainian prime minister Denys Shmyhal had asked for help in demining because there were landmines “all over Ukraine” and because Ireland had particular expertise in the area.

“We know armies like the Russian army leave stuff behind them, which will lead to children having their legs amputated when they step on mines and so on,” he said.

“Our military neutrality has been made crystal clear to all parties. That is accepted.”

In a statement on Thursday, Russian ambassador to Ireland Yuriy Filatov said there was “no way around the fact” that by engaging with Ukrainian military, Ireland would be involving itself in the war “in a direct way”.

“Training in demining is not [an] entirely defensive and peaceful activity – as any military expert would confirm, this process involves learning the process of laying mines as well,” he said.

“At the same time, in our view, there is no ambiguity about the fact that Ireland is not neutral in the Ukrainian conflict – the Taoiseach, Tánaiste and other Irish officials are on record about that – which seems to be the bottom line.

He rejected the Taoiseach’s comments that the Russian army were leaving armaments behind that would endanger children.

He added: “There is no way around the fact that by engaging with Ukrainian military, be it on mines or otherwise, Ireland would clearly be involved in the ongoing conflict in a direct way.”

In reply, a spokesman for the Department of Foreign Affairs said: “Ireland’s position in respect of Russia’s illegal aggression against Ukraine and our support for Ukraine’s right to defend this attack on its sovereignty and territorial integrity, in line with article 51 of the UN Charter, has been outlined in detail by the Government since February.”