The Irish Cabinet voted on 28 April to begin evicting 16,000 Ukrainian refugees from state accommodation—27 days after Taoiseach Micheál Martin defended Ireland’s exports to Russia’s missile supply chain by citing “welcoming Ukrainian refugees fleeing the war.”
The trade comes from Aughinish Alumina, Europe’s largest alumina refinery, on the Shannon estuary, which the same Cabinet has spent a decade lobbying Washington and Brussels to shield from sanctions.
How Aughinish alumina reaches Russian missiles
The supply-chain finding comes from an investigation by OCCRP, the Irish Times, iStories, KibOrg, and others. Reporters traced bauxite from Rusal-owned mines in Guinea and the Brazilian Amazon to the Limerick refinery, where heat, pressure, and caustic soda turn it into alumina.
ASK is formally independent of Rusal, but more than 20 of its employees previously worked there.
The alumina then sails to Russia and travels on to Rusal smelters in Krasnoyarsk and Sayanogorsk in Siberia. In 2024, Aughinish shipped around $400 million worth of alumina to those two facilities—about 40% of their total intake.
Leaked transaction data shows the smelters turn the alumina into aluminum and sell a substantial share to a Moscow-based trader called Aluminium Sales Company (ASK)—over $640 million worth between February 2022 and April 2025.
ASK is formally independent of Rusal, but more than 20 of its employees previously worked there; the two share registered addresses in Moscow, Volgograd, and Bratsk, and ASK has received loans from Rusal entities. Roughly a third of ASK’s revenue—some $337 million—comes from Russian defense contracts.
Ukraine’s Main Directorate of Intelligence said 18 of those firms have built weapons used in deadly attacks on Ukrainian soil.
In 2024, ASK donated over €870,000 ($1 million) to a charity called Care for Siberia, which shares its name with a fund the Russian Ministry of Defense has described as set up by businessmen to pay bonuses to Russian soldiers fighting in Ukraine—including for destroying Ukrainian tanks.
Among ASK’s 2024 customers are more than 40 EU-sanctioned arms makers. They include the Votkinsk Machine Building Plant, which builds the Iskander-M ballistic missile that killed 31 civilians in Sumy in April 2025; the Arzamas Instrument-Making Plant, which produces gyroscopes for the Kh-101 cruise missile; ODK-Ufa, which makes engines for Russian Sukhoi combat jets; and Uralvagonzavod, which builds T-72 tanks. Andriy Yusov of Ukraine’s Main Directorate of Intelligence said 18 of those firms have built weapons used in deadly attacks on Ukrainian soil.
Rusal, Russia’s largest aluminum producer, owns Aughinish, owns the Siberian smelters, and reaches those arms makers through a Moscow trader.
Reporters could not match a specific batch of Aughinish alumina to a specific weapon—smelters mix alumina from multiple sources in continuous operation. But Rusal, Russia’s largest aluminum producer, owns Aughinish, owns the Siberian smelters, and reaches those arms makers through a Moscow trader staffed by ex-Rusal employees and registered at Rusal addresses.
Why Dublin protects the trade
Aughinish’s ultimate parent is EN+ Group, founded by Oleg Deripaska—sanctioned by the EU, US, and UK, and once described in leaked US cables as among the two or three oligarchs Vladimir Putin “turns to on a regular basis.”
Aughinish employs about 400 staff and 500 contractors, with another 1,000 jobs in supporting firms.
When Washington sanctioned Rusal in 2018, Dan Mulhall, then-Irish ambassador to the US, led the lobbying campaign that got the company delisted, after Deripaska reduced his stake below 50%. Aughinish employs about 400 staff and 500 contractors, with another 1,000 jobs in supporting firms—worth an estimated €150 million ($175 million) annually to the local economy.
After 24 February 2022, Dublin pressed Brussels to keep Rusal off EU sanctions lists. It worked. Alumina remains unsanctioned, despite the Latvian government’s push to ban its export to Russia and despite the European Commission flagging alumina as a critical material that member states should stockpile for defense. Aughinish supplies around 30% of the EU’s alumina; Russia is now its largest customer, accounting for 68% of its exports in 2024—up from 23% in 2020.
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David O’Sullivan, the European Commission’s sanctions envoy, signaled that the bloc may need to consider sanctioning alumina.
Speaking in Warsaw on 1 April, Martin said the government would review the investigation’s findings. The same day, David O’Sullivan, the European Commission’s sanctions envoy, signaled that the bloc may need to consider sanctioning alumina. No such measure has been included in the EU’s 20th sanctions package, adopted on 23 April.
EU’s 20th sanctions package hits 20 Russian banks, 46 shadow fleet tankers, and crypto platforms
27 days later
On 28 April, the Cabinet voted to withdraw state accommodation from the 16,000 refugees who arrived before March 2024—and to phase out the €600 ($700) monthly Accommodation Recognition Payment supporting another 42,000 in hosted housing. The wind-down begins in August. Justice Minister Jim O’Callaghan brought the proposal; Martin signed it off.
Nick Henderson of the Irish Refugee Council called the cuts “really, really problematic.”
Serhii Kyslytsia, first deputy head of President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s office, said Ireland’s housing crisis predated the refugees and that Ukrainians in Ireland face the same rental market as everyone else. Nick Henderson of the Irish Refugee Council called the cuts “really, really problematic.” Labour TD Ged Nash condemned the decision as inconsistent with Ireland’s stated solidarity.
Aughinish has said it operates in full compliance with EU sanctions and trade law and has implemented a sanctions-compliance and due-diligence framework covering its supply chain. Rusal and its parent EN+ Group did not respond to requests for comment.
Alumina, the department added, is not a sanctioned good.
Ireland’s Department of Foreign Affairs said the country “remains unequivocal in its continuing support for Ukraine in light of Russia’s unjustified invasion.” Alumina, the department added, is not a sanctioned good. Therefore, its export to Russia is not restricted.
