It has been almost three years since the war between Russia and Ukraine started and this conflict is not taking the name of stopping yet. Meanwhile, surprising claims have come to the fore regarding this war. A report has claimed that artillery shells sold by Indian arms manufacturers have reached Ukraine via Europe. Despite Russia’s opposition, India has not yet intervened to stop this purchase and sale. According to several Indian and European officials as well as customs data, this export of ammunition for Ukraine’s attacks against Russia has been going on for more than a year. The report also states that Ukraine, which is struggling to stop the Russian invasion in Pokrovsk, is facing a severe shortage of ammunition.
It is worth noting that under the Indian rules regarding export of weapons, only the buyer can use the weapons. Indian officials have said that Russia has raised this issue on at least two occasions. This issue was also raised in the meeting between Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and his Indian counterpart in July. For the first time, the details of this purchase and sale of ammunition have been revealed through this report of Reuters. The European countries sending Indian ammunition to Ukraine include Italy and the Czech Republic. These countries are leading the initiative to supply weapons to Ukraine.
The foreign and defense ministries of Russia and India did not answer questions related to this. Earlier in January, Indian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal said in a press conference that India has neither sent nor sold weapons to Ukraine. According to sources, Ukraine has used very small quantities of weapons made in India. An official estimated that this is less than 1% of the total weapons imported by Ukraine since the war. However, it is not yet known whether the ammunition has been resold or donated to Ukraine by European customers.
It is worth noting that India also has good relations with Russia which has been supplying arms to India for decades and Prime Minister Narendra Modi has refused to join the sanctions imposed by Western countries against Russia. India has long been the world’s largest arms importer. It is also seeing the long-running war in Europe as an opportunity to strengthen its arms export sector. According to the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute think-tank, India exported arms worth about $3 billion between 2018 and 2023.
