The Journal reports:

Four unidentified military-style drones breached a no-fly zone and flew towards the flight path of Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s plane at sea near Dublin Airport late on Monday night, The Journal has learned.

The plane landed, slightly ahead of schedule, just moments before the incident happened at about 11pm. The drones reached the location where Zelenskyy’s plane was expected to be at the exact moment it had been due to pass.

The drones then orbited above an Irish Navy vessel that had secretly been deployed in the Irish Sea for the Zelenskyy visit.

Sources have said that the drones took off from the north-east of Dublin, possibly near Howth, and flew for up to two hours. Enquiries are being carried out to determine whether the drones took off from land or from an undetected ship.

It is not yet known who launched and controlled the drones or where the drones are now.

Military-style drones are capable of a large range of functions. In this case, the fact that the drones had their lights on has led security forces to suspect that the aim was to disrupt the flight’s arrival into Dublin.

Garda Commissioner Justin Kelly was told about the incident in the early hours of Tuesday morning. It is understood that the Taoiseach and Ministers for Justice and Defence were also told in the hours after it happened. It is not known if Irish authorities briefed the Ukrainian president’s team.

The incident mirrors similar drone incursions in Europe in recent months which led to the closure of airports in Brussels and Denmark and caused significant security tensions.

Ireland’s security services have found that the drones in the Irish Sea were large, hugely expensive, of military specification, and that the incident could be classed as a hybrid attack.

Hybrid warfare is the use of military and non-military tactics, such as drone incursions, cyber attacks, sabotage and disinformation, to weaken or destabilise opponents without declaring a full-scale war. It is generally carried out by state-level military and intelligence services.

It is understood that the drones missed the approach of the Ukrainian leader’s plane and then turned their attention to the LÉ William Butler Yeats, the Irish naval vessel which was secretly deployed off Dublin. The drones operated within the 12 nautical mile limit of Irish-controlled waters.

A decision was made not to shoot down the drones, and there was no ability onboard the naval vessel to disable them. It is understood an Irish Air Corps aircraft was also patrolling at the time but did not get involved. [Continue reading…]