AUGHINISH, Ireland (AP) — The Karin, a 400-foot-long (120-meter-long) cargo ship, was docked this week in Ireland’s marshy Shannon Estuary. Soon, he set sail for Russia loaded with a white powder that can be turned into vital weapons for Moscow’s war against Ukraine.
Alumina, the key ingredient in aluminum, is used in everything from toothpaste and lipstick to missiles and drones. A Russian plant in southern Ireland is Europe’s largest alumina refinery and regularly sends ships of the substance directly to St. Petersburg and other Russian ports.
Almost five years later Full-scale invasion of Ukraine by Moscowalumina has escaped European sanctions intended to hamper the Russian economy. That leaves the Aughinish refinery free to send its products to Russia, where some ends up in weapons manufacturing, experts say.
“The material clearly ends up in military supplies,” said Irish MP Ivana Bacik, who leads the opposition Labor Party. “It would be unthinkable for Ireland to contribute, even indirectly, to Putin’s war machine.”
Ireland faces calls to stop shipments as dozens of European leaders meet in Dublin this week to discuss support for Ukraine. The summit of the European Political Community, made up of 47 countries, will be followed on Thursday by a meeting of European Union leaders.
Irish government minister Niall Collins told The Associated Press that “there is absolutely no evidence” that these materials end up in military supply chains, although the government has refused to make public the findings of its investigation into alumina shipments.
Aughinish Alumina said in a statement that its product “has no connection to the Russian military supply chain” and that it has hired an independent company to provide monthly audits to Irish authorities for “enhanced traceability.”
Alumina is essential for making beer cans, bombs, lipsticks and missiles
Alumina is a chemical compound refined from bauxite, a red ore mined mainly in Guinea, Australia and China. The chalky white substance can be melted 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 plant in Aughinish, County Limerick, was built in the 1970s and bought in 2007 by Rusal, a Russian aluminum producer. The company was founded and is still partly owned by Oleg Deripaskaa sanctioned oligarch with ties to Russian President Vladimir Putin. Rusal produces 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 directly to the port of St. Petersburg, according to MarineTraffic data analyzed by AP.
Campaign group Alumina 22, which is lobbying to sanction the alumina trade to Russia, estimates that between March and October some 491,307 tonnes of Irish alumina were shipped to Russia.
These expeditions grew in importance. Since Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022, two alumina plants – one in Australia, the other in Ukraine – have stopped exporting to Russia, reducing its supplies by about 40%, according to a 2026 report from the Economic Security Council of Ukraine, or ESCU.
Around 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 Aughinish alumina is processed into aluminum in Russia, with some sold to a metals trading company that supplies Russian defense contractors.
“Almost everything that comes from Rusal ends up with a high probability in the hands of Russian military companies,” said Olena Yurchenko, director of analysis, research and investigations at ESCU.
Ukraine, EU countries call for sanctions on alumina exports to Russia
Standing next to Irish Prime Minister Michael Martin in Dublin in June“Unfortunately, there are companies in Europe owned or controlled by Russia and its sanctioned oligarchs. They continue to supply the aggressor with essential materials even now,” Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said.
Martin acknowledged that “we don’t want to find ourselves in a situation where materials from a factory in Ireland are used to support the Russian war machine.”
Ireland has found no evidence that this is happening, but also no evidence that this is not the case, said Business Minister Peter Burke, who is responsible for enforcing sanctions in the country. He said in July that it had been impossible to prove Rusal’s claim that Irish alumina was only used to make aluminum for export from Russia.
The Irish government has not published its findings, but has forwarded them to the European Commission, which draws up EU sanctions packages.
EU sanctions envoy David O’Sullivan said there is no doubt that “alumina is destined for Russian smelters that produce products that are undoubtedly destined at least in part for the military-industrial complex.”
“I have read the government report. Personally, I think there is no doubt that the investigative journalists were right,” he said last month in Dublin at a meeting organized by the Institute of International and European Affairs.
The European Parliament passed a non-binding motion in July 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 European Commission, which draws up the sanctions packages, is currently probing member countries over Irish alumina exports. Sanctions must be agreed unanimously by the bloc’s 27 countries.
A spokesperson for the commission 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 countries, “especially since alumina is an essential raw material.”
Amid scrutiny of alumina exports, debate ensues over job protection
Supporters of the plant point to the hundreds of jobs it creates and its role as a key source of alumina for European countries. Keeping supply lines open is particularly important because of the chokehold on cargo traffic across the Strait of Hormuz caused by the U.S.-Israeli war against Iran.
Collins, who represents County Limerick in the Irish parliament, said Ireland had been “extremely resolute in its support for the Ukrainians, and Ukraine has not provided any evidence that Aughinish is doing anything negative.”
Opposition politicians remain skeptical. Bacik’s center-left Labor Party supports a temporary nationalization of the refinery, as during the Ireland seized its banks following 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 from other EU countries if the Irish government is not prepared to do the right thing here,” she said.
In Foynes, the windswept port town next to the factory, many work in Aughinish or know someone who does. But some residents have mixed feelings.
“It’s too big a business for them to close,” said Joe Hanlon, a retired dockworker. “Too many jobs for the government to get involved.”
But he added that “of course they should do it” if Ireland wants to “stop the war against Ukraine”.
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This story has been updated to correct the title of Irish Prime Minister Michael Martin.
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Associated Press writers Mr. Reo in Washington and Larry Fenn in New York contributed to this report.
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