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Two Russian ships put under surveillance due to suspicious movements

The Irish Defence Forces scrambled to deploy ships and aircraft after spotting the two Russian government vessels 'Umka' and 'Bakhtemir' off the west coast equipped with technology capable of interfering with subsea cables. Suspicions were raised when the ships were spotted loitering near a newly operational communications cable linking Ireland and Iceland. Both ships had been involved in the construction of the Nord Stream 2 pipeline, resulting in them being sanctioned by the US government. After being spotted, the ships were put under surveillance by Air Corps aircraft and Naval Service assets. However, later analysis determined the ships’ unusual movements were probably a result of efforts to avoid bad weather, rather than anything sinister. Both ships left the Irish Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) on March 27, 2023, and are currently sailing south to the port of Malabo with an ETA as of April 19. They departed the northern Russian port of Murmansk three weeks ago. They remained under surveillance during their time in the Irish EEZ. EU countries, including Ireland, have stepped up surveillance of vital subsea infrastructure since the explosions that disabled the Nord Stream pipelines. The ships had thus raised serious concerns among Irish military officials due to their movements around the IRIS high-speed, subsea communications cable, which became operational in 2022 and runs west off the Galway coast. The ships appeared to double back on themselves several times in the general area of the cable. Suspicions were heightened after an Air Corps aircraft observed one of the ships towing a large platform. This was later confirmed to be a 100m long cable-laying barge.