Ireland faces pressure to stop sending Russia an ingredient vital to its war on Ukraine

Detailed summary

A cargo ship is set to leave Ireland for Russia with alumina, a white powder that experts say is likely used to make weapons

A cargo ship is set to leave Ireland for Russia with alumina, a white powder that experts say is likely used to make weapons

AUGHINISH, Ireland -- 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, a 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 a chemical compound refined from bauxite, a red ore mined primarily…

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