Ireland faces pressure to stop sending Russia an ingredient vital to its
war on Ukraine
[November 12, 2026] By
SAM McNEIL and JILL LAWLESS
AUGHINISH, Ireland (AP) — The Karin, a 400-foot-long (120-meter-long)
cargo ship, sat moored this week on Ireland’s boggy River Shannon
estuary. Soon it set sail for Russia laden with a white powder that can
be forged into weapons vital to Moscow’s war on Ukraine.
Alumina, the key ingredient in aluminum, goes into everything from
toothpaste and lipstick to missiles and drones. A Russian-owned plant in
southern Ireland is Europe’s biggest alumina refinery and regularly
sends shiploads of the substance directly to St. Petersburg and other
Russian ports.
Almost five years into Moscow’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, alumina
has escaped European sanctions intended to hobble Russia’s economy. That
leaves the refinery in Aughinish free to send its product to Russia,
where some ends up in weapons, experts say.
“The material is clearly ending up in military supplies,” said Irish
lawmaker Ivana Bacik, who leads the opposition Labour Party. “It would
be unthinkable for Ireland to be contributing, even in that indirect
way, to Putin’s war machine.”
Ireland is facing calls to stop the shipments as dozens of European
leaders gather in Dublin this week to discuss support for Ukraine. A
summit of the 47-nation European Political Community on Thursday is
being followed by a meeting of European Union leaders.
Irish government minister Niall Collins told The Associated Press that
“there’s absolutely no evidence” the material is ending up in military
supply chains, though the government has declined to make public the
findings of its investigation into the alumina shipments.
Aughinish Alumina said in a statement its product “has no connection to
the Russian military supply chain” and that it hired an independent
company to provide monthly audits to Irish authorities for “enhanced
traceability.”
Alumina is key to making beer cans, bombs, lipstick and missiles
Alumina is a chemical compound refined from bauxite, a red ore mined
primarily in Guinea, Australia and China. The chalky white substance can
be smelted into aluminum, which is then forged with other, rarer
elements to make strong, heat-resistant and flexible alloys used in
missiles and aircraft; aluminum is also used in the manufacture of
rocket fuel and explosives.
The Aughinish plant in County Limerick was built in the 1970s and bought
in 2007 by Rusal, a Russian aluminum producer. The company was founded,
and is still part-owned, by Oleg Deripaska, a sanctioned oligarch with
ties to Russian President Vladimir Putin. Rusal makes virtually all of
Russia's aluminum, according to the U.S. and Australian governments.
While many cargo ships leave Aughinish bound for Europe and beyond, a
steady stream of them heads straight to the port of St. Petersburg,
according to data from MarineTraffic analyzed by AP.
The activist group Alumina 22, which is lobbying to sanction the trade
in alumina to Russia, estimated that between March and October some
491,307 metric tons of alumina from Ireland was shipped to Russia.
These shipments have grown in importance. Since Russia’s full-scale
invasion of Ukraine in 2022, two alumina factories — one in Australia,
the other in Ukraine — stopped exporting to Russia, crimping its
supplies by about 40%, according to a 2026 report by the Economic
Security Council of Ukraine, or ESCU.
Roughly 17% of Rusal's alumina supply now comes from Ireland, according
to ESCU.
An investigation by the Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project
and the Irish Times published earlier this year found that alumina from
Aughinish is smelted in Russia into aluminum, with some of it sold to a
metals trading company that supplies Russian defense contractors.
“Virtually everything that comes from Rusal is with a high probability
ending up in the hands of Russian military enterprises,” said Olena
Yurchenko, director of analytics, research and investigations at the
ESCU.
Ukraine and EU nations call for sanctions on alumina exports to
Russia
Standing next to Irish Prime Minister Micheál Martin in Dublin in June,
Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said “Unfortunately, there are
companies in Europe that are owned or effectively controlled by Russia
and its sanctioned oligarchs. They keep supplying the aggressor with
essential materials, even now.”
[to top of second column] |
The Aughinish refinery in Aughinish, Ireland, Tuesday, Nov. 10,
2026. (AP Photo/Peter Morrison)
 Martin acknowledged that “we do not
want to be in a position where material emanating from a plant in
Ireland goes to support the Russian war machine.”
Ireland has not found evidence that is happening — but also no proof
it isn’t, said Enterprise Minister Peter Burke, who is in charge of
the country's sanctions enforcement. He said in July it had been
impossible to prove Rusal’s assertion that alumina from Ireland is
only used to make aluminum for export from Russia.
The Irish government hasn't published its findings, but it handed
them to the European Commission, which drafts EU sanctions packages.
EU sanctions envoy David O’Sullivan said there is little doubt that
“the alumina goes to smelters in Russia who produce stuff which
undoubtedly goes at least in part to the military-industrial
complex.”
“I’ve read the government report. Personally, I think there’s no
doubt the investigative journalists got it right,” he said last
month in Dublin at a meeting organized by the Institute of
International and European Affairs.
The European Parliament in July passed a non-binding motion calling
for a ban on alumina exports to Russia. But alumina was not included
in the EU’s 21st sanctions package against Russia that month. The
EU’s executive European Commission, which draws up sanctions
packages, is now sounding out member nations about the Irish alumina
exports. Sanctions must be agreed upon unanimously by the bloc's 27
countries.
A commission spokesperson said in July that the bloc’s sanctions
policy was “a delicate balance” between thwarting Russia’s war
effort and limiting “negative impacts” on EU member nations,
“especially considering that alumina is a critical raw material.”
Amid scrutiny of alumina exports, a debate ensues about
protecting jobs
Supporters of the plant point to the hundreds of jobs it provides,
and to its role as a key source of alumina for European countries.
Keeping supply lines open is especially important because of the
chokehold on cargo traffic through the Strait of Hormuz caused by
the U.S.-Israeli war with Iran.
Collins, who represents County Limerick in Ireland's parliament,
said Ireland has been "hugely resolute in our support for the
Ukrainians, and Ukraine hasn’t provided any evidence that Aughinish
is doing anything adverse."
Opposition politicians remain skeptical. Bacik's left-of-center
Labour Party supports a temporary nationalization of the refinery,
similar to when Ireland seized banks in the wake of the 2008
financial crisis. She says the refinery can ban exports to Russia
and find other eager customers in Europe.
“We need to see much stronger action being taken on this from other
EU countries if the Irish government isn’t willing to do the right
thing here,” she said.
In Foynes, the wind-swept port town beside the plant, many work at
Aughinish or know someone who does. But some locals have mixed
feelings.
“It's too big a business for them to close it down,” said retired
docker Joe Hanlon. “Too much employment for the government to get
involved.”
But he said “of course they should,” if Ireland wants “to stop the
war on Ukraine.”
___
Associated Press writers M. Reo in Washington and Larry Fenn in New
York contributed to this report.
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