DUBLIN — The European Union should target Russia’s ability to produce metals and refine oil in its next round of sanctions, EU top diplomat Kaja Kallas said Tuesday.
Kallas was speaking on a visit to Dublin shortly after the EU published its 21st package of sanctions designed to increase pressure on Russia over its 2022 full-scale invasion of Ukraine.
Her focus on metals poses a particularly awkward question for Dublin. The Irish are due to take the EU Council’s rotating presidency in July — and they host a Russian company that manufactures alumina, the key ingredient for Russian aluminum.
The Rusal-owned Aughinish Alumina refinery in County Limerick has avoided any European sanctions chiefly because, so far, the EU has not targeted manufacturers of materials used to make aluminum and other metals.
But, speaking at a press conference alongside Irish Foreign Minister Helen McEntee, Kallas said the EU’s next sanctions package may well target Aughinish, whose alumina is ending up in Russian weapons systems, according to an international investigation published in March. The company admits its exports of the material to Russia have more than doubled since Russia drastically expanded its war on Ukraine in 2022.
Kallas said she and McEntee had discussed reports that Irish-produced alumina was empowering Russia’s weapons supply chain — and if proven, this support must be closed in the 22nd sanctions package.
“Alumina is not currently covered by the EU sanctions. Europe must close all loopholes, tighten sanctions enforcement, and ensure our commitments are backed by deeds,” Kallas said. “No European products should end up in drones and missiles that kill Ukrainian civilians.”
“We will ensure that any decisions that need to be taken to put pressure on Russia, that they will have the full support of Ireland,” McEntee agreed.
That marked a departure from previous government statements, notably in May, when Taoiseach Micheál Martin stressed that imposing sanctions on Aughinish production “would damage ourselves more than Russia.”
McEntee said the Irish government expected to receive findings from its own internal investigation later this month and, if evidence of Irish alumina in Russian weapons is confirmed, Ireland would support EU restrictions on Aughinish exports to Russia.
Such a step would be certain to have negative political repercussions in Ireland, where the alumina refinery on the River Shannon employs nearly 500 people. In its own briefing note to the Irish government, Aughinish’s owners threatened that trying to cut off its Russian customers would imperil the refinery’s survival — and sharply increase costs on Ireland’s power grid.
When asked why the EU had not taken this step in Tuesday’s 21st package, Kallas cited lack of unanimity among member countries — but did not single out individual capitals.