Russia has warned Ireland that it will face \u201cserious consequences\u201d if the Defence Forces attempt to board or intercept shadow fleet vessels under proposed legislation expanding the military\u2019s operational powers in Irish waters.<\/p>\n
The Defence (Amendment) Bill 2026 would allow Irish military personnel to board vessels in the country\u2019s maritime zones to inspect documents, equipment and activities, as well as directing vessels to alter their route.<\/p>\n
Russian Ambassador to Ireland Yuri Filatov said the legislation suggested that the Government was preparing to join the \u201cpirate actions\u201d of other countries, which have intercepted vessels seeking to evade anti-Russia sanctions.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is a demonstration by Dublin that they are prepared for such actions and, in theory, could join the pirate actions of their senior partners,\u201d Filatov said in an interview published by Russian newspaper Izvestia.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe Irish have been warned that attempts to carry out such acts of piracy will have the most serious consequences for them,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n
The article claimed that Ireland had a shortage of patrol vessels and suggested that the interception and detention of ships would only occur with the participation of the British or French navies.<\/p>\n
The proposed amendment to the Defence Act 1954 was initiated in the D\u00e1il in June, and would grant legal authority to the Defence<\/p>\n
Forces to board and reroute vessels in Irish waters or its Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) where illicit activities are suspected.<\/p>\n
The Izvestia article erroneously reported that these legislative changes had come into effect on July 24, citing Mr Filatov.<\/p>\n
It said Ireland was important to Western efforts to detain \u201cships allegedly acting in Moscow\u2019s interests\u201d because of its location close to vital Atlantic shipping routes.<\/p>\n
Defence Minister Helen McEntee said in March that the proposed legislative amendments were required in response to \u201cemerging threats in our waters\u201d, specifically referring to vessels linked to Russia\u2019s \u201cshadow fleet\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cRecent events in the Baltic Sea and the activities of Russia\u2019s shadow fleet have highlighted the importance of ensuring that we have the legal framework necessary to respond to evolving threats,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
McEntee said existing legislation does not explicitly assign maritime enforcement powers to the Defence Forces.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis legislation will address that gap by clearly setting out the Defence Forces\u2019 role in safeguarding our maritime domain while remaining fully consistent with international law,\u201d she added.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Russia has warned Ireland that it will face \u201cserious consequences\u201d if the Defence Forces attempt to board or…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":582506,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[61,60,43],"class_list":["post-582505","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-ireland","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/582505","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=582505"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/582505\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/582506"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=582505"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=582505"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=582505"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}