India refused to stop supplying munitions to Ukraine despite the Kremlin raising the issue on two occasions, according to Reuters.
Russia’s top trade ally has been sending ammunition, notably artillery shells sold by Indian arms makers, for Ukraine’s war against Russia for more than a year, though India’s foreign ministry spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal denied this during a news conference in January.
The two countries have had a strong trade relationship since India declared independence in 1947, trading arms, oil, electronic machinery and equipment, pharmaceutical products, nuclear reactors, and more, according to the Indian Embassy in Moscow, and this continued support of Ukraine could jeopardize that relationship.
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Newsweek reached out to the Ministry of External Affairs for the government of India for comment via email outside of business hours.
In providing Ukraine with artillery shells, India has been fulfilling its dire shell shortage, according to the Reuters report.
Customs records obtained by the outlet indicated that in 2020 and 2021, three Indian ammunition makers—Yantra, Munitions India, and Kalyani Strategic Systems—were primarily responsible for exporting $2.8 million in munitions components to several European countries, all of which have defense contractors investing in Ukraine.
During a meeting with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov and his Indian counterpart, Subrahmanyam Jaishankar, in July, three Indian officials told Reuters that Lavrov reportedly confronted him about India’s supplying Ukraine with munitions in this way.
Russia has previously supplied India with military arms, including four warships armed with supersonic missiles for the Indian Navy this month.
Moreover, from 2019 to 2023, India received 36 percent of Russia’s arms exports, though new reports indicate that India is moving away from using Russian weapons.
Russia is India’s second-largest import source, and from 2023 to 2024 purchased goods amounted to $55.6 billion.
An expert previously told Newsweek that Russia is a key source of oil for India, and that is not likely to change in the near future, even though local reports indicated that India stopped paying for Russian premium crude oil in January.
Newsweek has also reached out to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation for comment.
Italy and the Czech Republic are also sending Indian-made munitions to Ukraine in support of the war, and an Indian official said that India has not taken any action to cut off supply to Europe thus far, according to Reuters.
Indian officials said that the ammunition produced by Dehli sent to Ukraine accounted for less than 1 percent of the total arms exported to Kyiv since the beginning of the war in February 2022.
In August, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi told Putin that he is supportive of a peaceful resolution to the Ukraine-Russia war and hopes it will be achieved soon, following his visit to meet with Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky, according to Reuters.
During his visit with Putin, Modi also reportedly requested the return of the Indian nationals who were sent to serve in Russia’s army in Ukraine, according to the Kyiv Post.
Last week, however, Putin answered Modi’s request and dozens of the 91 Indian nationals serving in the Russian army were discharged, according to the BBC.
Zelensky criticized Modi for his visit to Moscow in July and wrote on X, formerly known as Twitter, “It is a huge disappointment and a devastating blow to peace efforts to see the leader of the world’s largest democracy hug the world’s most bloody criminal in Moscow on such a day.”
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