How far should Ireland go in providing non-lethal aid to Ukraine?
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in Shannon Airport with Taoiseach Simon Harris and Ukrainian ambassador to Ireland, Larysa Gerasko. Photo: Eamonn Farrell/© RollingNews.ie
A month ago the Ukrainian ambassador to Ireland told an Oireachtas committee that she could guarantee the Irish Government that any funding it gives for air-defence systems to protect civilians from missiles would only be used for that purpose.
Larysa Gerasko said, it that way, the Government could stay within the confines of only providing Ukraine with “non-lethal” military aid, as both missiles and armed drones are unmanned.
“I can assure you; we can locate air defence protecting civilians and civilian infrastructure – no doubt," she promised members of the Oireachtas Committee on Foreign Affairs and Defence.
Her appeal followed massive bombardments on critical civilian infrastructure – primarily energy and electricity stations – by Russian forces in March.
She said that almost 80% of Ukraine's thermal power generation plants had been destroyed by Russian missile attacks - and feared for civilians over the coming winter.
Last week, a month on from her appeal, Russian forces launched further devastating aerial assaults across Ukraine during morning rush hour.
More than 30 civilians, including at least five children, were killed, according to Ukrainian authorities.
Most of the dead were in the capital, where a children’s hospital was bombed and largely destroyed.
Taoiseach Simon Harris described the bombing of Okhmatdyt hospital as a “war crime” and accused Russian president Vladimir Putin of "openly targeting civilian infrastructure and innocent children".
On Saturday, the Taoiseach met President Volodymyr Zelenskyy at Shannon Airport, as the Ukrainian leader was flying home from a NATO summit in Washington, where they discussed the signing of a bilateral security agreement on demining, energy, humanitarian assistance and food security – but no change to Ireland’s policy of not supplying lethal military aid.
Since the full-scale Russian invasion in February 2022, the Irish Government has maintained a policy of “military neutrality” and while it has stretched the boundaries of the admittedly grey confines of neutrality, it has restricted assistance to “non-lethal” military aid.
The cast a net out wide to try and get a range of views - from politicians, security experts, peace advocates and academics - to see if they think Ireland can, or should, do more, including the provision of air defence systems for civilians, or funding the purchase of such military assets.
Not surprisingly, there was a range of views.
Of the 17 responses, 10 said Ireland should and/or could provide assistance towards provision of air defence for civilians in Ukraine, one was neutral and six were against.
Of course, this is only representative of those who responded.
“Ireland should help Ukraine secure the means to defend itself against the kind of murderous attacks we've seen [last Tuesday], with targeted missile strikes against civilians, including the children's hospital in Kyiv,” Prof Ó Beacháin said. “These are war crimes.
“There is no legal impediment to providing such assistance but there is certainly, in my view, a moral obligation. If Kyiv and other cities are not provided with these air defence systems, Russia will simply inflict more horrific airstrikes.”
Prof Ó Beacháin said there is no mention of neutrality in the Constitution.
“From what I can see, the only thing that would be clearly incompatible with a policy of military neutrality is becoming a member of a military alliance.”
The latter reference is to the 2002 insertion in the Constitution, at the time of the Nice Referendum, prohibiting the State from adopting a decision taken by the EU Council to establish “a common defence” that would include Ireland.
"The ongoing illegal assaults by Russia against Ukraine are deplorable and must end,” Mr Carthy said. "Ireland must be consistent in our demand that international law be upheld and in supporting sanctions against those in breach of the UN charter. Gross violations of international law, including the targeting of hospitals in Ukraine and in Gaza, must be met with a resolute determination to hold those responsible to account.
"Ireland, as a neutral state with an independent foreign policy, has an important role to play in consistently defending international law and in providing humanitarian aid, rather than in providing military assistance or participating in conflicts."
Mr Fitzsimmons said he would favour encouraging the Government to provide funding to support air defence systems for cities, other civilian areas, and critical civilian infrastructure, like bridges and power plants.
“If Ireland were to specifically tie its funding to the purchase of short-range air defence systems, this would make it easier for it to avoid the charge that it is funding systems that are also intended to protect Ukrainian military infrastructure,” he said.
“While this action would violate Ireland's stated policy of military neutrality, the Government of Ireland crossed this bridge long ago,” he said.
He said Ireland characterised its assistance as “non-lethal” aid and claimed that it merely involved providing medical supplies, fuel, body armour to the Ukrainian armed forces as well as deploying members of the Irish Defence Forces to train Ukrainian soldiers in drill instructorship, combat medicine and demining.
But he said media reports last August asserted there were plans that Defence Forces would expand its training to include basic weapons skills and military tactics.
“Imparting any of these critical military skills, even the non-lethal skills, constitutes militarily aligned behaviour because this will plausibly enhance the Ukrainian armed forces’ ability to kill or injure Russian soldiers,” he said.
“The definition of ‘the policy of military neutrality’ is entirely in the hands of the government,” Prof Tonra said. “There is nothing in that policy - as it has been traditionally defined - that would preclude the funding of air defence systems for Ukraine.”
He said that current limitations on military support for Ukraine are exclusively defined by the Programme for Government.
Mr Cole said that in World War 2, the Fianna Fail-de Valera Government was neutral, not "militarily neutral", a wording, he said, which “has no meaning whatsoever” in international law.
“Providing military aid of any kind to either side involved in a war is a decision to totally destroy Irish neutrality,” Mr Cole said.
He said there is a case that use of the Irish Army’s RBS70 short-range air defence against missiles and glide bombs “could be classed as non-lethal aid”.
He said there could be an issue of debris potentially injuring civilians.
“I don’t think neutrality affects this per se, I think the reluctance is more about optics and risk,” he said.
“We absolutely should provide air defence technology,” he said. “Ireland has a responsibility to protect civilians and contributing to the air defence umbrella around Ukrainian population centres is entirely consistent with this obligation.” He agreed with Prof Bury’s suggestion that air defence could be classified as “non-lethal aid”.
Mr Berry suggested that the next programme for Government should exclude any “self-imposed” restraint of non-lethal aid, saying it “absolutely no sense in light of the reality on the continent at the moment”.
“The Ukrainians need more anti-missile systems to protect totally civilian locations,” Mr Murphy said, adding that the equipment they have is used for military locations.
“The Russians have consistently targeted civilian locations, so they need more.”
He pointed out: “Ireland has nothing to send: we have no anti-missile systems of our own. So apart from words, have we anything to offer?”
He added: “And bear in mind Irish statements on these issues are being noticed by some very bad actors. And we are totally defenceless.”
Mr Lonardo said military neutrality does not prevent Ireland from funding an air defence system from Ukraine.
“The policy, as understood by the Government, simply entails that Ireland will not become part of military alliances or enter mutual defence arrangements,” he said.
“There is no preclusion to financing the purchase of weapons, even though the government has so far decided not to do so as far as air defence of Ukraine is concerned.
“In addition, and most importantly, the policy (being precisely this, a policy, as opposed to, for example, a constitutional commitment) can be changed at will by the political majority.”
He said that first of all Ireland doesn’t have any air defence systems to send Ukraine.
“Ireland is a militarily neutral country and Labour supports the position of pledging humanitarian and financial supports to Ukraine for non-lethal aid,” the Wexford TD said.
“We have not stood in the way of the EU providing funds to Ukraine for weapon purchases, and we’ve called for revenue from seized Russian assets to be granted to Ukraine for rebuilding work.”
He said more intensified efforts should be made by Ireland to support Ukraine and its people, adding it is clear the war is going to be lengthy and protracted.
He said Ireland has given €150m in non-lethal military assistance through the European Peace Facility.
“I don’t believe the provision of air defence assistance is incompatible with our policy of neutrality. In fact, neutrality, if anything, has shown over the years to be flexible and pragmatic.”
Mr Flanagan said the Government should also provide government-to-government monies to Ukraine, to fund bomb shelters for schools and medical clinics and community halls.
He said Ireland should continue to contribute to EU defence cooperation and said this can be done “without calling into question Ireland's traditional policy of neutrality”.
“I don’t think Ireland should now decide to fund the provision and maintenance of Ukraine’s air defence," Prof Murphy said. “I regret that the situation relating to Russian aggression and attacks on Ukraine continues, but recent attacks have not changed what has been happening there for some time.
“The provision of such aid would, I believe, be inconsistent with Ireland’s stated policy of military neutrality. However, as this is a policy adopted by the government, it is always open to the government to change such a policy. I personally would not support such a change.”
He said Ireland remains an “outlier” not only in adhering to a policy of “military neutrality” but also because it is consistently referenced by academics in the sphere of defence and security spending as being “free riders” and “laggards”.
He said Ireland’s policy of military neutrality was defined by the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade in 2022 “as a policy of military neutrality, characterised by non-membership of military alliances or common or mutual defence arrangements”.
In terms of practical support he said Ireland does not have a credible air defence system.
He said that while Ireland is claiming to be militarily neutral it provided training to the Ukrainian armed forces, meaning that Ireland’s definition of neutrality or its practice is not really in the normal definition of neutrality.
“My personal view is that it should be justifiable to directly provide funding to enable enhancement of air defence capability for Ukraine,” he said.
Mr Murphy is clear that sending military hardware to Ukraine “would be a breach of neutrality”.
He said: “Instead, Ireland should be seeking to assist ordinary Ukrainians in ways that do not undermine neutrality. Since the Russian invasion, we have repeatedly called for and put forward a motion in the Dáil for the cancellation of Ukrainian debt. Unfortunately, the government has not acted on that.
We also think that we should increase our humanitarian aid to Ukrainian people.”
Prof Cottey said neutrality is intimately intertwined with ethical issues relating to war and peace. “Supporters of neutrality often argue that it is an ethically superior policy, because it supports peace by helping to de-escalate a situation or avoid being drawn into other countries' wars.
“Critics argue that neutrality is sometimes, even often, ethically problematic, because it means standing aside when one should take a stand or denying others (such as Ukraine) the means for self-defence.
“In my view, there is an ethically compelling case for providing arms to Ukraine: without this more Ukrainians will die, Ukraine will lose the war and its people will have to live under repressive Russian rule for decades to come. The ethical case for the provision of air defence systems is even stronger.”
He said whether this is compatible with neutrality “is an open question because there is no definitive or agreed definition of neutrality”.
“If neutrality simply means not joining a military alliance, then providing weapons to Ukraine might be compatible with neutrality. If neutrality means not supporting one side or another in a war by military means (as international law is quite often understood to imply), then providing Ukraine with combat systems may not be compatible with neutrality.
“One could argue that sometimes doing the ethically correct thing - enabling Ukraine to defend its civilian population - should trump neutrality.”
“While Ireland has a policy of military neutrality, the Government has been clear that Ireland is not politically neutral with regard to Russia’s unprovoked aggression against Ukraine,” the department said in a statement.
It said that in line with the commitments in the Programme for Government, Ireland’s military support to Ukraine under the EPF is directed exclusively towards non-lethal support, such as fuel, first aid kits and PPE (personal protective equipment).
Mr Burke said there is “overwhelming evidence” that the Russian Federation has repeatedly targeted civilians on a systematic scale.
“Ireland is a wealthy EU member state that should contribute to preventing future attacks on innocent civilians in Ukraine,” he said.
He said the Russian invasion of Ukraine was an illegal act of aggression, an invasion of a UN member state that has seen “wave after wave of atrocity”.
He added: “If Ireland can help to provide the air defence systems to deter and defend against further massacres I believe that is to be welcomed.”
Mr Burke said that in the absence of UN Security Council action, Ukraine has the right to defend itself against invasion, atrocity and occupation.
“Ireland and the European Union’s collective support of that right is in keeping with our UN responsibilities and obligations,” he said. “There are occasions when higher principles, to which Ireland has subscribed through its UN and EU membership, outweigh strict interpretations of neutrality.”
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