Material produced in a major metals refinery in Ireland is “undoubtedly” going into Russia’s weapons supply chain, the European Union’s Sanctions Envoy David O’Sullivan said on Thursday, adding that “there is a very real issue to be addressed.”

The comments, made at the Institute for International and European Affairs (IIEA) in Dublin, come seven months after OCCRP and partners published an investigation showing that the Aughinish Alumina refinery in western Ireland was indirectly supplying Russian weapons producers.

As much as half of the alumina from the Aughinish refinery was shipped to smelters owned by its parent company, United Company Rusal, and used to produce aluminum. The metal was then sold to a trading company supplying dozens of EU-sanctioned Russian weapons manufacturers, OCCRP’s investigation showed. 

Weapons made by these firms have leveled entire city blocks in Mariupol, struck a children’s hospital in Kyiv, and blown open an apartment building in western Ukraine, according to EU sanctions listings, Ukraine’s military intelligence, and the London-based Royal United Services Institute (RUSI).

Aughinish Alumina's sales to Russia — which have increased since the full-scale invasion of Ukraine — are entirely legal under EU trade rules. That is because although EU exports of finished aluminum are banned, shipments of the intermediate material alumina are not, partly as a result of lobbying years ago by Ireland, where Aughinish Alumina is an important employer.

OCCRP’s investigation sparked controversy in Ireland and internationally, and led to growing pressure to sanction EU alumina exports. The Irish government launched its own investigation, which reached an ambivalent conclusion, saying that a lack of data made it “difficult to ascertain where Russia is sourcing its tools and weapons from.” It shared its findings with the EU Commission in July.

O’Sullivan was less cautious in his assessment. 

“The alumina goes to smelters in Russia, who produce stuff which undoubtedly goes at least in part to the military-industrial complex,” he said. “I've read the government report. I personally, I think there's no doubt the investigative journalists got it right.”

O’Sullivan did not say whether the EU would eventually ban alumina exports to Russia. 

“I think there is a very real issue to be addressed. We just have to find the best way of doing it, which doesn't have unhelpful collateral consequences,” he said, noting that Aughinish Alumina also supplied smelters in Europe.

In July, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said in a visit to Dublin that “Every ton 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 militarize itself.”

Aughinish Alumina has said that its material is not used to make weapons, and that almost all the alumina it sends to Russian smelters is solely used to produce aluminum for onward export out of Russia. 

OCCRP’s original investigation was published in partnership with iStories, the Irish Times, KibOrg, De Tijd, The Guardian, and Delfi.