Martin: 'Practical' reasons for not expelling Russian ambassador to Ireland

Taoiseach Micheál Martin said the war is  'unjustifiable'.

Taoiseach Micheál Martin has said he is reluctant to expel the Russian ambassador to Ireland for 'practical' reasons, not least given Ireland's representatives in Moscow.

“I believe unity is strength," said Mr Martin during an interview in Cork. 

"We should work on a coordinated basis with our fellow colleagues across Europe.

There is a practical dimension to this that we do have a presence in Moscow and it's important in situations like this and in a crisis, having people on the ground that can facilitate humanitarian responses to help Irish citizens who could potentially be in very difficult situations.

He added that it is very hard to predict how the crisis is going to unfold.

“But channels such as that do matter, in terms of helping overseas citizens who could be in difficulties.” 

There have been growing calls to expel Yury Filatov over the actions of Russia in Ukraine.

On Saturday evening, nearly 40 Fianna Fáil TDs, senators and MEPs signed a petition calling for Mr Filatov to be ejected from Ireland.

The list included TDs Jim O’Callaghan and Dara Calleary, as well as senators Lisa Chambers and Fiona O’Loughlin.

Calls for his expulsion increased after an interview he gave RTÉ recently, which has been described as a "car crash"

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Mr Martin said actions against Russia such as sanctions and restricting airspace “reflect a very unified and cohesive response to the unjustified and immoral war that Russia is waging on the people of Ukraine”.

On the announcement of talks between Russian and Ukrainian representatives, he said: “We welcome any talks. We've always been consistently in support of dialogue, to resolve issues between states and any security issues in terms of the European area.

“The European Union has always said, and European countries have said to Russia, 'look, if you have security issues, there is a forum there to resolve those and to discuss those', so we'd welcome such talks."

He said the war is  'unjustifiable'.

“We know hospitals have been attacked, schools have been attacked, nurseries, civilians are being killed," he said. 

It’s unacceptable. It's immoral, what's going on, and that needs to be brought to an end.

Commenting on Russian president Vladimir Putin's decision to put his nuclear defences in alert, Mr Martin said: "It is absolutely irresponsible and reckless just as the original waging of war is reckless and irresponsible.

"It's an attempt to intimidate and to bully. We admire the courage of the Ukrainian people. It's quite extraordinary, standing up for their country and their people but again, it's a huge cost in terms of the loss of life and the destruction of their cities and towns. So this is a further threat.

"But I think the the response has to be very firm from the western perspective, the sanctions that we've deployed, with a view to ending this war. It is very, very important that this war should end, and that people should be spared any further loss of life and damage."