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After being moored along Ireland’s boggy River Shannon estuary this week, the 120-metre-long (400-foot-long) cargo ship Karin set sail for Russia.
The vessel was laden with a bulk cargo of white powder that can be forged into weapons which are vital to Moscow’s war on Ukraine.
Alumina, a key ingredient in aluminium, goes into products from toothpaste and lipstick to missiles and drones.
A Russian-owned plant in southern Ireland operates as Europe’s biggest alumina refinery, regularly sending shiploads of the substance directly to St Petersburg and other Russian ports.
Almost five years into Moscow’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, alumina has escaped European sanctions intended to hobble Russia’s economy. That leaves the refinery in Aughinish free to send its product to Russia, where experts say some ends up in weapons.
“The material is clearly ending up in military supplies," said Irish politician Ivana Bacik, who leads the opposition Labour Party.
“It would be unthinkable for Ireland to be contributing, even in that indirect way, to Putin’s war machine.”
Ireland faces mounting calls to halt the shipments as dozens of European leaders gather in Dublin this week to discuss support for Ukraine.
