{"id":528598,"date":"2026-07-02T02:24:10","date_gmt":"2026-07-02T02:24:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/528598\/"},"modified":"2026-07-02T02:24:10","modified_gmt":"2026-07-02T02:24:10","slug":"volodymyr-zelenskiy-urges-irish-government-to-cut-off-alumina-supply-to-russia-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/528598\/","title":{"rendered":"Volodymyr Zelenskiy urges Irish Government to cut off alumina supply to Russia \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskiy has appealed to the Government to cut off the supply of raw materials to Russia<\/a> produced in the Co Limerick<\/a> Aughinish Alumina plant. <\/p>\n

Speaking during a visit to Dublin<\/a> marking the beginning of Ireland\u2019s EU presidency, the Ukrainian leader warned that \u201cevery tonne\u201d of vital raw material shipped to Russia was being used \u201cagainst\u201d the Ukrainian people in Moscow\u2019s war<\/a>. <\/p>\n

Taoiseach Miche\u00e1l Martin said an investigation by the Department of Enterprise into the output of the industrial plant would be completed shortly and the findings shared with the European Commission. <\/p>\n

\u201cWe do not want to be in a position where material emanating from a plant in Ireland goes to support the Russian war machine,\u201d he said on Wednesday. <\/p>\n

The Government is coming under pressure to respond to increasing calls for sanctions to bar the export of alumina from the Irish plant to Russia. <\/p>\n

There is growing concern about the material being used in aluminium for missiles, tanks and aircraft in Russian president Vladimir Putin\u2019s four-year war on Ukraine.<\/p>\n

Separately, Swedish authorities have determined that Rusal, the metals giant that owns the Aughinish Alumina refinery in Co Limerick, remains under the control of sanctioned oligarch Oleg Deripaska.<\/p>\n

The ruling from Skatteverket, Sweden\u2019s tax authority, states that all of Rusal\u2019s operation in Europe \u2013 a group that includes the Irish plant \u2013 should be subject to EU sanctions targeting Russia, which would include the freezing of assets.<\/p>\n

A Department of Enterprise spokeswoman said it had no comment on the inquiry by Swedish tax authorities. <\/p>\n

The Irish Government launched an investigation into Aughinish following disclosures in The Irish Times that it was exporting vast amounts of alumina, the raw material for aluminium, which ends up in a supply chain that supplies Russia\u2019s military industry. <\/p>\n

In a joint press conference with the Taoiseach, Zelenskiy made his most direct appeal yet for action to be taken to cut off the supply. <\/p>\n

\u201cEvery tonne of raw material that ends in Russia is used against us. I do hope whatever we are doing now, we are cutting every possibility, every sphere for Russia to build up, to militarise,\u201d the Ukrainian leader told reporters. <\/p>\n

\u201cWhen their economy is shrinking, we can see that immediately, just as it is shrinking, Russia\u2019s ability to perform massive attacks decreases, so we are really interested in the results of this investigation.\u201d <\/p>\n

Earlier in the day, Zelenskiy had used an address delivered in Dublin Castle to criticise Europe\u2019s failure to sanction companies that were still under the effective control of Russian oligarchs. <\/p>\n

Tougher EU sanctions were needed to restrict the \u201ctools\u201d Moscow used to keep its invasion going, he said. <\/p>\n

\u201cUnfortunately, 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.\u201d <\/p>\n

Zelenskiy later discussed the investigation into Aughinish Alumina in a private meeting with Martin. <\/p>\n

The Air Corps spent much of Wednesday tracking a ship linked to Aughinish as it travelled up the Irish Sea during Zelenskiy\u2019s visit.<\/p>\n

The cargo ship, owned by an Estonian shipping company, was shadowed by a maritime patrol aircraft for several hours. It regularly transports alumina from Aughinish to Russia. <\/p>\n

The ship is not sanctioned and is not suspected of wrongdoing. <\/p>\n

Security sources said it was monitored because of its Russian links and because it deviated from its usual route by travelling up the Irish Sea.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskiy has appealed to the Government to cut off the supply of raw materials to…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":528599,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[42,43,40,38,41,39],"class_list":["post-528598","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-headlines","tag-news","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/528598","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=528598"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/528598\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/528599"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=528598"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=528598"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=528598"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}