Niall O'Connor Reporting from Ukraine.

THE MINISTER FOR Defence Helen McEntee has said that she is open to discussing drone defence capabilities with Ukraine.

Speaking to The Journal in Kyiv today after a meeting of the EU foreign ministers and Volodymyr Zelenskyy, McEntee said that she has already discussed drone capabilities with her Ukrainian counterpart. 

McEntee, who is also Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade, said that she had visited, along with her colleagues in the EU, a display by the Ukrainian military of their capability. This display included both air and ground drones. 

Ukraine has sent experts to the Middle East to help countries such as Bahrain, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates to deal with the Iranian Shahed drone attacks. 

The Minister said that she was cognisant that Ukraine possessed an array of lethal drones and that Ireland was focused on defensive capabilities. 

McEntee said that they were engaged with “countries” on the drone defences for the upcoming EU presidency in July but would not be drawn on which countries. 

Ireland has set in train a procurement process to purchase counter drone capabilities from France but the comment by McEntee now shows that the effort is much broader than that. 

“I think we should be working closely with Ukraine [and] the EU as a whole when it comes to procurement, when it comes to types of defence equipment we’re talking about, and I’ve already had these conversations with the [Ukrainian] defence minister at council meetings.

“It’s certainly something that I’d be open to exploring,” she said. 

Back home yesterday Justice Minister Jim O’Callaghan, speaking at the Association of Garda Sergeants and Inspectors (AGSI) annual conference, said that gardaí had all the required capability to deal with drones over land. 

His reference to land only would suggest that it is for the Irish Defence Forces to deal with any incursions at sea, which was what happened, as revealed by The Journal, during the visit of President Volodymyr Zelenskyy to Ireland.

There has been certain concerns, as revealed by The Journal, that the Defence Forces’ new counter drone technology will only be available to make secure one single location at a time and most likely will be deployed at Baldonnel.   

A Ukrainian soldier launches a drone. Alamy Stock Photo Alamy Stock Photo

McEntee said today in Kyiv, that she has had extensive meetings with O’Callaghan, An Garda Síochána and the Defence Forces and she added that there is an extensive procurement effort ongoing to source the required equipment for both on land and sea.  

The Minister had travelled to Bucha today for a commemoration at the site of the massacre of hundreds of civilians by Russian forces in the early stages of the Russian invasion four years ago.

Bucha is located on the northern outskirts of Kyiv and it was a location where the Russians, tortured and killed civilians in the area.  

McEntee said that in Ireland people are at a remove from it but travelling to the site of the massacre has given her a visceral appreciation of the events there. 

“There no point in saying it didn’t absolutely affect me being there and being on the site where the mass graves had been found.

“But also, then, when you walked around the the church and you saw the photos of people, literally, that were tortured and executed and burnt and left on the side of the road, you wouldn’t do it to an animal.

“It, just for me, reinforced the need for us to say time and time again, Russia is the aggressor here. This is exactly what they’re capable of. This is exactly what they’re doing, and that we need to make sure that they’re the ones that are held accountable,” she added.

Separately she also spoke of Spain’s decision to close its airspace to US military aircraft involved in the Iran War. 

She referred to laws governing the landing of military aircraft in Ireland, which were drafted in the 1950s.

“Our engagement with any country has been clear, and we have not allowed, nor will we allow, any aircraft that is engaged in military activity to land or to engage in that regard, and that won’t change,” she added. 

McEntee also said that she has written to the United Nations to express her concerns about the safety of Irish troops serving with UNIFIL in Lebanon. 

Three Indonesian soldiers have been killed in two incidents in recent days. Also a Polish soldier was injured in a roadside bomb blast.