{"id":526763,"date":"2026-07-01T01:03:08","date_gmt":"2026-07-01T01:03:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/526763\/"},"modified":"2026-07-01T01:03:08","modified_gmt":"2026-07-01T01:03:08","slug":"ireland-on-heightened-alert-as-ukrainian-president-volodymyr-zelenskyy-arrives-for-talks","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/526763\/","title":{"rendered":"Ireland on heightened alert as Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy arrives for talks"},"content":{"rendered":"

Ireland starts day one of the EU presidency<\/a> on heightened alert with the surprise visit later on Wednesday of Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy.<\/p>\n

The visit immediately tests Ireland\u2019s security forces \u2014 An Garda S\u00edoch\u00e1na and the Defence Forces \u2014 in their capabilities to protect the Ukrainian delegation while in Irish territory and ensure the security of meetings with the Government.<\/p>\n

The National Cyber Security Centre will also be on alert for any attempts to breach government or public sector websites or digital infrastructure in a bid to harm its reputation.<\/p>\n

The surprise arrival of Mr Zelenskyy comes alongside the previously announced visit of European Council president Antonio Costa, with Taoiseach Miche\u00e1l Martin due to hold bilateral meetings with both leaders.<\/p>\n

Mr Martin said that supporting Ukraine would be an \u201cimportant priority\u201d during Ireland\u2019s EU presidency term.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn our meetings today, we will also be discussing how to increase pressure on Russia so that the cost of continuing its illegal war becomes unsustainable,\u201d Mr Martin said.<\/p>\n

Speaking before the public announcement of president Zelenskyy\u2019s visit, Garda Commissioner Justin Kelly said Ireland was \u201cnot immune\u201d to the experience across Europe, where police and intelligence agencies have documented Russia\u2019s paid use of \u201cproxies\u201d, such as local criminals, to carry out acts of their behalf.<\/p>\n

But he said the Garda Security Service was \u201cready for that\u201d and that it had worked on its capabilities and benefited from good relationships with partner countries in terms of intelligence.<\/p>\n

Detailing the garda preparations for the presidency, the commissioner also said there was now \u201cworld-class counter-drone protection in Ireland\u201d.<\/p>\n

He said Government investment in garda drone and counter-drone equipment and training had \u201csubstantially increased\u201d since the drone incursion that took place last December after a plane carrying Mr Zelenskyy passed into Irish airspace on its way to Dublin Airport for an official visit.<\/p>\n

The Irish Examiner reported subsequently that Irish security forces suspected that Russian intelligence \u2014 or groups acting on their behalf \u2014 were most likely behind the incident, but because the drones were never recovered they were unable to gather evidence.<\/p>\n

Garda\u00ed have purchased state-of-the-art counter-drone equipment, including mobile van units, operated by members of the Special Tactics and Operations Command.<\/p>\n

The commissioner also highlighted investment in a new garda surveillance aircraft and an armoured tactical truck.<\/p>\n

Threat from Russia\u00a0<\/p>\n

The foreign affairs and security agenda in the Government\u2019s programme for the EU presidency, published over a week ago, is dominated by the Russian war in Ukraine<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Asked about the threat from Russia, including reports from European police and intelligence agencies of Russia\u2019s paid use of proxies, such as local criminals, to carry out acts on its behalf, Mr Kelly said:<\/p>\n

\u201cIn relation to the threat from Russia, Russia\u2019s war of aggression against Ukraine has reached our shores here. [Regarding] the threats of proxies around Europe, we are not immune to it here.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m limited around the level of detail I can go to, but we are ready for that, we have worked on all our capabilities, and we have really good relationships with some of our partners abroad.\u201d<\/p>\n

On other threats to the presidency, the commissioner said that public disorder arising from a \u201ctrigger event\u201d \u2014 such as Monday\u2019s arson attack on a mosque \u2014 was one of the \u201cbiggest concerns\u201d for garda\u00ed.<\/p>\n

Mr Kelly said they will \u201ccertainly be on the alert\u201d for social media disinformation following such events and that a key garda response will be \u201ccoming out really quickly\u201d with accurate information.<\/p>\n

He pointed out that there was \u201cno indication\u201d, at the moment, that there was any \u201cright-wing or anti-immigration\u201d aspect to the arson attack on the mosque in Dublin.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Ireland starts day one of the EU presidency on heightened alert with the surprise visit later on Wednesday…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":526764,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[74289,61,60,43],"class_list":["post-526763","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-ireland","tag-eu-presidency","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/526763","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=526763"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/526763\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/526764"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=526763"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=526763"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=526763"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}