eurointegration.com.ua<\/a>.<\/p>\nHe made the statement during an informal meeting of the foreign ministers of EU member states in the \u201cGymnich\u201d format, held in Ireland.<\/p>\n
Andrii Sybiha identified countering Russian escalation and supporting peace initiatives as the top priorities. The minister also stressed the need to increase pressure on the aggressor state so that it cannot adapt to the sanctions already in place.<\/p>\n
Ukraine proposed a number of additional restrictions to the European Union. These include targeted sanctions against Russian companies producing ballistic weapons, restrictions on certain legal entities and individuals, and measures against the \u201cRassvet\u201d satellite system.<\/p>\n
In addition, Andrii Sybiha called for stronger efforts to combat Russia\u2019s \u201cshadow fleet,\u201d sanctions against the state corporations \u201cRosatom\u201d and \u201cRoscosmos,\u201d and tighter restrictions on Russian citizens\u2019 travel to Europe. In Ukraine\u2019s view, this would help counter Russia\u2019s subversive activities in European countries.<\/p>\n
We call on the EU to impose a complete embargo on supplies of alumina and aluminium ores to Russia. This raw material is crucial to Russia\u2019s military-industrial complex, particularly its aerospace sector and the production of missiles and armoured vehicles. Denying Russia access to alumina will directly reduce its ability to manufacture weapons.<\/p>\n
\u2013 Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine<\/p>\n
Why the embargo is a sensitive issue for Ireland<\/p>\n
The issue of banning alumina exports to Russia is particularly sensitive for Ireland, which holds the presidency of the Council of the EU during this six-month term.<\/p>\n
The Aughinish plant operates in County Limerick. It is Europe\u2019s largest alumina processing facility and one of five such plants in the European Union. The facility is owned by the Russian aluminium group \u201cRusal.\u201d<\/p>\n
After an investigation by an Irish newspaper reported that the plant\u2019s products were being sold to a trading company supplying goods to a major military-industrial hub in Russia, Aughinish found itself at the centre of international attention.<\/p>\n
According to the investigation, the plant shipped 422,474 tonnes of alumina to Russia in the first half of 2026 \u2013 a raw material used to produce aluminium. The value of the shipments was estimated at \u20ac119.5 million.<\/p>\n
In July, Irish Prime Minister Miche\u00e1l Martin said he would like to halt exports to Russia of aluminium oxide, which can be used in Russia\u2019s defence industry. Earlier, during Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy\u2019s visit to Dublin, he also announced that Ireland\u2019s investigation into alumina exports to Russia had been completed.<\/p>\n
The situation surrounding supplies of this raw material has already drawn the attention of the European Commission. Introducing an EU-wide embargo could become one of the key measures to restrict the Russian military-industrial complex\u2019s access to critically important materials.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Kyiv\u2019s proposal targets a material tied to Russia\u2019s weapons industry, but the call puts one EU country\u2019s major…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":8706,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[5142,5143,5144,14,5145,5141,34,5146],"class_list":["post-8705","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-news","tag-alumina-exports","tag-aluminum-ore-embargo","tag-aughinish-plant","tag-defence-industry","tag-eu-sanctions-on-russia","tag-eu-sanctions-on-russia-alumina-exports-aluminum-ore-embargo-ukraine-sanctions-proposal-russian-military-industry-aughinish-plant","tag-news","tag-russian-military-industry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/defence\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8705","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/defence\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/defence\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/defence\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/defence\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8705"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/defence\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8705\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/defence\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/8706"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/defence\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8705"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/defence\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8705"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/defence\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8705"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}