There are 74 Irish citizens still in Ukraine as of this morning, Foreign Affairs Minister Simon Coveney has said.
Mr Coveney said Irish diplomats are currently in “close contact” with them, and are providing them “with up-to-date advice on what they should do.”
As the Irish Examiner reports, speaking ahead of a cabinet meeting this morning, Mr Coveney said the Government would be discussing Russia’s diplomatic presence here.
In recent days, Sinn Féin and others have called for the expulsion the Russian ambassador to Ireland Yuri Filatov.
However, Mr Coveney repeated his view that even in a time of conflict, diplomats communication channels needed to be maintained.
“If for nothing else to ensure we can look after the humanitarian needs of Irish people who find themselves in difficulty, if that is in Russia or Ukraine,” he said.
He went to to say that a meeting of EU officials was taking place in Brussels this morning to discuss the bloc’s collective response to Russia’s presence in Europe’s capitals.
He said that while the ultimate decision will be made by the Irish Government, a collective decision at an EU-level would “have more impact"
Mr Coveney told RTÉ News that what was unfolding in Ukraine was “absolutely awful.”
“There is increasing evdence to show that Russian forces are actually targeting civilians, which is a war crime. We should be very clear and blunt about that," he said.
Mr Coveney said that “credible” reports of Russian forces using cluster bombs during its invasion of Ukraine constituted “completely unacceptable breaches of international law.”
“The picture looks extremely bleak. We’re likely to see a significant increase in the numbers of people killed, maimed, injured, many of them civilians. It is a very worrying situation.”
Echoing remarks mare by Tánaiste Leo Varadkar last week, Mr Coveney said Ireland “was not neutral” on the conflict in Ukraine.
“This is a case of one of the world’s most powerful military forces aggressively invading a sovereign nation, which happens to be in the heart of Europe. We are taking sides in this conflict.”
Mr Coveney added that Ireland had committed €10 million to the €500m European-Union package to support the Ukrainian military.
“We will focus on non-lethal weapons, but that doesn’t mean that that contribution isn’t significant and ensuring that Ireland plays our part fully."
At today’s UN Security Council meeting on the humanitarian crisis in #Ukraine 🇺🇦 caused by
Russia’s invasion, Ireland 🇮🇪 called on Russia
to withdraw its forces and uphold international humanitarian and human rights law. pic.twitter.com/qAulc0dye9— Irish Foreign Ministry (@dfatirl) February 28, 2022
