The Ukrainian Embassy in Ireland has published a statement expressing “serious concern” over the ongoing export of alumina from Ireland to Russia, despite the Irish Government indicating it has opened an investigation into such exports, reports RTE.
The Aughinish Alumina plant in Co Limerick is Europe’s largest alumina refinery, exporting between 40% and 80% of its output directly to Russia, reports RTE.
Alumina is extracted from bauxite at the facility and then shipped to Russia, where it is processed to produce aluminium.
In its statement, the Ukrainian Embassy said the material is “extensively used by Russia’s military-industrial complex,” reports RTE.
The embassy also raised questions about a notable increase in exports from the plant to Russia since the full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.
“According to trade data, this troubling trade flow has increased significantly, with exports rising from €196 million in 2021 to €318 million in 2025, positioning the Russian Federation as the largest destination for Irish alumina exports and surpassing traditional European partners,” the embassy said.
“These figures raise serious concerns,” the statement added, as “aluminium is used in the manufacture of a wide range of Russian military systems, including Iskander-M ballistic missiles, Tsirkon hypersonic missiles, Kh-101 and Kalibr cruise missiles, as well as Shahed-136/Geran-2 attacks unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs),” reports RTE.
Late last week, the European Commission decided against including the plant in a fresh round of sanctions, despite calls from nearly 40 MEPs — including European Parliament Vice President Pina Picierno — for it to be included.
The Italian MEP had written to the Commission stating it was “unacceptable that, while the EU funds Ukraine’s defence, a Russian-owned company operates undisturbed within a member state, supplying the Kremlin’s military industry,” reports RTE.
The Aughinish plant was acquired in 2007 by Russian conglomerate Rusal, one of the world’s largest aluminium producers.
Rusal was founded by Russian billionaire Oleg Deripaska, a long-standing confidant of President Vladimir Putin who has himself been subject to repeated rounds of Western sanctions, reports RTE.
The company operating the plant states it is in “strict compliance with all applicable European Union laws, including sanctions, export control measures and trade regulations” and has implemented a “robust sanctions compliance and due diligence framework covering its entire supply chain.”
It employs 475 people directly, with several hundred further jobs supported indirectly by its continued operation, reports RTE.
Speaking on RTÉ’s Prime Time, Minister of State Niall Collins defended the Government’s handling of the matter.
He said a recently commissioned Department of Enterprise review examining concerns about the use of Irish alumina in Russia’s military production processes would be completed and forwarded to the European Commission, reports RTE.
He also criticised media coverage of the issue, which he described as originating from “a number of news agencies, some of them who you would describe as not trusted or unverified websites and news agencies.”
This appeared to be a reference to reporting based on trade data and leaked documents led by the Organised Crime and Corruption Reporting Project (OCCRP) — a collective of media outlets including The Irish Times — published in recent weeks, reports RTE.
The OCCRP is a well-established organisation with a track record of publishing major investigations based on large volumes of financial and corporate data, and has been involved in numerous award-winning investigative reports focused on corporate affairs, corruption in Russia and Eastern Europe, and offshore tax structures.
Its investigation concluded that alumina exported from the Aughinish plant “is processed into aluminum and sold to clients that include a Moscow-based trader which has supplied hundreds of millions of dollars’ worth of aluminum to Russian arms manufacturers,” reports RTE.
“These arms manufacturers include more than 40 firms that have been sanctioned by the EU, and whose weapons have killed thousands of civilians and caused widespread damage in Ukraine,” it said, reports RTE.
In response to questions about the reporting, Minister Collins said: “There’s a shared responsibility on everybody to verify what they’re saying and what they’re reporting.”
Asked how the Government would verify details about the end use of alumina exported to Russia from Ireland, Minister Collins said: “The Department of Enterprise, that is their job to do, and I think we need to allow them the space to do it,” reports RTE.
“The important point is the Department has to be allowed to do its review and its investigation, and the European Union as a collective 27, will then make an informed decision based on the facts,” he said.
“What the Government is about is conducting an investigation, liaising with the company, liaising with the European Commission,” he added, reports RTE.
Earlier on Tuesday, Minister for Enterprise Peter Burke revealed on RTÉ’s Morning Ireland that statistics on alumina exports from the plant published by the Central Statistics Office were under scrutiny for accuracy.
He said the inaccurate data had been submitted to the CSO by the company operating the plant and was now “being rectified,” adding that the company’s updated figure placed the share of output sent to Russia at closer to 45%, compared with the CSO figure of more than 80%, reports RTE.
Tell us your thoughts in the Facebook post and share this with your friends.
