Russian Embassy issues chilling warning to Ireland over citizens fighting in Ukraine

Finbar Cafferkey is reported to have been killed near Bakhmut.

The Russian Embassy in Dublin has warned that Ireland will suffer “all consequences” if Irish citizens are encouraged to fight in Ukraine.

The same will happen if Russia considers Ireland a “direct participant” in the war between Russia and Ukraine, according to a statement from the embassy posted on a social media site.

Former minister of foreign affairs Charlie Flanagan has now called for Russian Ambassador Yuriy Filatov and his staff to be expelled from the country, describing the statement as “threatening, intimidating, and chilling”.

“These hostile remarks are unacceptable,” he said in a tweet. “Beyond time Ambassador Filatov and his crew were asked to leave our country.” 

In the statement purportedly from the embassy, Tánaiste Micheál Martin is attacked for describing Finbar Cafferky, who died fighting Russians in Ukraine, as a “man of principles”.

The Achill Island man is reported to have been a military volunteer in the eastern part of the country and to have been killed near Bakhmut.

The embassy says: “We have noted that on April 28, (the) Tánaiste expressed his sympathies to the family of Finbar Cafferkey. Mr Martin called him ‘obviously a young man of clear principles’.

“We do not know what his principles were. What we do know, though, is that in a very big way it is the Irish Government and media who bear responsibility for the death of Finbar Cafferkey.” 

The statement also claims the Government and media have been “misleading people like Finbar Cafferkey”.

It adds: “We do not know if Mr Martin’s remarks signify support for the Irish to take part in combat in Ukraine.

“But we do know that if that is the case, then Ireland would be the direct participant of the conflict with all the ensuing consequences.”