Naval Service ships and Air Corps aircraft were tasked to track two Russian ships identified off the west coast this week due to concerns about potential interference with subsea cables.

As The Irish Times reports, the Umka and the Bakhtemir were spotted close to IRIS high-speed, subsea communications cable which became operational last year off the Galway coast.

It reports that the “ships appeared to double back on themselves several times in the general area of the cable”.

The Russian Federation-flagged ships are an offshore supply vessel and a salvage and rescue ship which is equipped with diving platforms and submersibles for deep water work.

They are operated by the Russian Marine Rescue Services, and had been involved in the construction of the Nord Stream 2 pipeline.

Following confirmation of the ships’ presence off the Irish west coast, they were placed under surveillance by Air Corps aircraft and Naval Service patrol ships.

The newspaper reports that “later analysis determined the ships’ unusual movements were probably a result of efforts to avoid bad weather, rather than anything sinister”.

Both ships sailed from Murmansk three weeks ago, and left the Irish Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) on Monday.

They are reported to be en route to the port of Malabo in Equatorial Guinea.

Read more in The Irish Times here