Ireland’s navy has “no way” of detecting the type of underwater drone shown on a news broadcast on Russian state television firing a nuclear missile at the UK, Cathal Berry has said.
The Sunday-evening primetime show report, which circulated on social media yesterday, showed an underwater nuclear missile being set off just off the coast of Donegal, before destroying Ireland and the UK. The segment was presented by Dmitry Kiselyov, the Channel One anchor, also known as “Putin’s mouthpiece”.
Russian state media has played a key role in justifying Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine to the Russian public, casting the war as an existential battle with the West and the supposed “Nazis” who run Ukraine.
Kiselyov said in the report: “Another option is to plunge Britain into the depths of the sea using Russia’s unmanned underwater vehicle Poseidon. It approaches its target at a depth of 1km at a speed of 200km/h. There’s no way of stopping this underwater drone. The warhead on it has a yield of up to 100 megatonnes.”
He added: “The explosion of this thermonuclear torpedo by Britain’s coastline will cause a gigantic tsunami wave up to 500m high. Such a barrage alone also carries extreme doses of radiation. Having passed over the British Isles, it will turn what might be left of them into a radioactive desert.”
Berry, an independent TD and former army ranger, said the report was designed “to scare”. The report did not directly reference Ireland, but Berry noted how some countries did not view Ireland as a separate state to Britain.
“We might make a distinction between our country and the UK, but other countries don’t. In some cases, Ireland is not regarded as a sovereign separate country,” he said.
“Our supposed neutrality isn’t bulletproof. This supposed cloak that we can throw over ourselves and protect us is completely unrealistic because of our proximity to Britain. We are a target as you can see in the graphics [in the report].”
Berry said Ireland was “completely unprepared” should the UK be attacked by Russia. “There’s a lot of focus on how we can help Ukraine, but there hasn’t been any focus on how Ireland is going to defend its own jurisdiction if this conflict escalates. We’ve no idea where the conflict is going to go, whether it’s going to escalate or not, and how it’s going to end up,” he said.
“Unfortunately, this country is utterly defenceless. Whenever I talk to my European colleagues they say ‘all we’re asking Ireland to do is to not be a burden on everyone else’s defence and security’. European countries are concerned that Ireland would be used as a base to attack them.”
The Russian Embassy in Dublin, told The Times: “The views and presentations in the TV show are that of the editors.
“The official position of Russia has always been that there can be no winners in a nuclear war and that it must never be unleashed, as once again was reaffirmed in the Joint Statement of the Leaders of the Five Nuclear-Weapons States on Preventing Nuclear War and Avoiding Arms Races, published on January 3, 2022.”
Berry said Ireland should be able to independently control its own waters and skies. “The fact that we can’t even do that — we’ve no way of even detecting a submarine that was used in the graphics on the Russian TV,” he said
“For an island nation to not even have any means of detecting what’s going on is scandalous. There’s trawlers in Killybegs with better sonar equipment than our own navy. We’ve no primary radar, we can’t even detect what’s going on in our own airspace. We’re the only EU country that does not have that capability.
“This isn’t an offensive weapon or a defensive weapon. This is just passive monitoring of our own airspace and our own sea space, both surface and subsurface. The fact that we don’t have those capabilities is outrageous really.”
Ireland’s neutrality has come under the spotlight since the conflict erupted in Ukraine earlier this year. A poll for The Times last month found that 70 per cent of people were against joining Nato.
Russia announced last month that it had successfully tested the Sarmat intercontinental ballistic missile — called “Satan 2” by western analysts — in the country’s north. President Putin said the missile, which can carry nuclear warheads, would make Russia’s foes “think twice” before threatening Moscow.
Last week, Channel One’s 60 Minutes programme displayed a graphic showing the amount of time it would take a Sarmat missile to reach London — 202 seconds.
The Department of Defence said there could be no justification for threatening the use of nuclear weapons. “Ireland has long argued that nuclear weapons offer no security, and their use would result in devastating humanitarian consequences,” it said.
“Ireland recalls the statement of the heads of the five nuclear weapon states, including Russia in January 2022, that a nuclear war cannot be won and must never be fought.
“Ireland continues to urge maximum restraint, de-escalation and the avoidance of any nuclear rhetoric which will only worsen an already dangerous and unpredictable situation.
“Ireland calls on Russia to agree to an immediate ceasefire, withdrawal of troops to pre 24th February positions and a commitment to a dialogue.”
