Ukraine<\/a> and that it continued Ireland\u2019s provision of \u201cnon-lethal aid\u201d to the country.<\/p>\nThe Russian Embassy in Dublin said the supply of military equipment was more evidence of Ireland\u2019s \u201cdirect involvement\u201d in the conflict and that it made \u201ca mockery\u201d of Ireland\u2019s policy of military neutrality.<\/p>\n
Operation Carousel 3, led by the Defence Forces Transport Corps, facilitated the safe arrival of the 34 vehicles at the International Donor Coordination Cell in Rzesz\u00f3w, Poland, as part of Ireland\u2019s European Peace Facility contribution.<\/p>\n
The convoy also carried three Reacher Robots, which will be donated to the De-mining Coalition in which Ireland is a participant.<\/p>\n
The 34 vehicles include two Ford Transits, three Mercedes ambulances, five Scania 8×8 DROPS Trucks, eight Ford Transit 15-seater minibuses, and 16 Double Cab Ford Rangers.<\/p>\n
Professor Donnacha \u00d3 Beach\u00e1in, School of Law and Government at Dublin City University, said the donations, while modest, were welcome: \u201cThe ambulances and transport vehicles will strengthen Ukraine\u2019s mobility, medical evacuation, and logistics, which are all critical to sustaining frontline operations.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe de-mining robots are particularly valuable, given Russia\u2019s widespread use of mines. While obviously not a game-changer, these kinds of contributions matter because wars are not won by heavy weapons alone but by the support systems that keep an army moving and soldiers alive.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
Conor Daly, teaching fellow at the Department of Russian and Slavonic Studies at Trinity College, said: \u201cThe area of Ukraine currently affected by mines and unexploded ordnance is nearly twice the size of the island of Ireland.\u00a0<\/p>\n
“Ireland’s donation of vehicles might appear modest in material terms, but it will add significantly to the capability of the Ramstein Group’s De-mining Capability Coalition, of which Ireland is a member. The symbolic support is even more valuable: Ireland has stepped up to the plate as one of 50 nations actively contributing to Ukraine’s ability to defend itself and remain a free and independent state.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
Prof. \u00d3 Beach\u00e1in, whose recent book on Russia, Unfinished Empire, was published this summer, said the bigger challenge for Ukraine was to repel Russia\u2019s intensifying drone and missile campaign, which required air defence and jamming technology.<\/p>\n
He said: \u201cIreland must keep finding ways to show support for Ukraine. Committing more to EU-level initiatives such as the European Peace Facility would be particularly valuable.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
Mr Daly said Ukrainian military analysts want Nato forces to pool their anti-drone capabilities with those of Ukraine so as to create a “no-fly zone” over Ukraine.\u00a0<\/p>\n
He said: “One proposal is to deploy Polish radars and drone interceptors right along Ukraine’s border with Russia in the Sumy region. As well as protecting Ukraine’s civilian infrastructure, this measure would stop stray drones from penetrating into Polish, Romanian and other Nato airspace.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Irish experts on Eastern Europe have welcomed the Government\u2019s supply of 34 Defence Forces vehicles and three de-mining…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":29902,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[61,60,43,2040],"class_list":["post-29901","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-ireland","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-news","tag-ukraine"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29901","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=29901"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29901\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/29902"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=29901"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=29901"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=29901"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}