Russia moved its military exercises further away from the Irish coast to make sure nobody felt uncomfortable, the country's ambassador to Ireland says.
Ambassador Yuri Filatov was speaking after the country agreed to move naval exercises, set to begin later this week, outside of Ireland's Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ).
The drills were moved after appeals by local fishermen and the Government.
Ambassador Filatov told The Pat Kenny Show the Russian Ministry of Defence was happy to make the change.
"They made their decision on the basis of these requests from the fisheries - which as we understand are in a sort of a difficult period nowadays.
"If we have a chance to help all these people, so why not do that".
Asked how far the operations were moved, he says it did not require a significant change.
"They will move it outside the limits of the Irish Exclusive Economic Zone, and that would be not very significant move in any way.
"In the first place, there hadn't been much of a problem - but just to make sure that nobody is bothered or feels uncomfortable.
"That will be done just enough for them to do their job and for sailors to do their job and everything will be fine".
Ambassador Filatov dismissed suggestions that these exercises had anything to do with Ukraine as "ridiculous".
"For people who somehow try to link these exercises with Ukraine, I would suggest they have studied geography a little bit more.
"Where is Ukraine and where is this area of [the] Atlantic: the scale of exercises in this particular point is very limited, it will probably be just two ships.
"I am on the record saying about a week ago that the whole issue of these exercises was a non-story, and it remains as such.
"The underlying issues have been largely overblown".
He says a meeting he held with the fishermen and their organisations last week was "very open and constructive".
"It was clear at that moment that there is not really a problem, since their concern has initially been that the exercises somehow would prevent them from fishing... in the traditional area where the quotas are.
"And it was not the case in any way, since the area of fishing and the zone of exercises actually did not overlap in a very significant way".
And he added that Russia has no intention of invading Ukraine.
"We don't have any reason or intention to invade anybody, least of all Ukraine which is our neighbouring countries - we need stability".
