Additional reporting by Vivienne Clarke.
The presence of Russian cargo vessels off the Irish coast was “a cheap way to send a threat” to Ireland, the EU and NATO, according to an Irish academic at the Finnish Institute of International Affairs.
Eoin McNamara told RTÉ Radio’s Morning Ireland that while the vessels were commercial, “all lines lead back to the Kremlin”, as was the case with companies like the Wagner group and energy companies.
"They say they are cargo vessels, they can be all those things, but they are sending a signal that they know where the cables are and that they have the equipment to disrupt."
Ireland is “not set up” to properly monitor incidents like the Russian vessels, he said. The Defence Forces were dependent on intelligence from elsewhere and there was a “gap” in the capacity of the forces, he added.
Mr McNamara's comments comes as the Air Corps published the first photographs of the Russian-registered ships spotted off the coast of Ireland over the past week.
The three ships – the Umka, the Bakhtemir and the Fortuna – caused alarm among defence officials when they were spotted engaging in unusual manoeuvres off the Co Galway coast in the vicinity of a new subsea communications cable.
It is understood that the vessels were equipped with technology capable of interfering with subsea cables.
The Defence Forces deployed ships and aircraft to keep track of the vessels, which later turned south and appeared to resume their originally charted journey to the port of Malabo in Equatorial Guinea on the west coast of Africa.
A statement from the Defence Forces on Sunday confirmed the vessels have left the State's exclusive economic zone (EEZ).
It read: “As part of their Maritime, Defence and Security Operations (MDSO), the Irish Air Corps Maritime Patrol Aircraft have observed Russian commercial vessels in international waters off the island of Ireland.
“These vessels have now left Ireland’s EEZ.
“The Irish Air Corps and the Irish Naval Service continue to monitor activity in Irish waters and to undertake Maritime Defence and Security Operations (MDSO) throughout Ireland’s maritime domain.”
