indian arms flow into ukraine via europe? russia is unhappy, india has not yet intervened in the relevant trade
2024-09-20
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according to a report by the global times on september 20, ammunition sold by indian arms manufacturers is being transferred to ukraine by european customers. despite russia's protest, india has not taken any action to stop the relevant trade.
some media reported that customs data showed that european countries currently involved in transferring ammunition to ukraine include the czech republic, italy, etc. the relevant arms companies and relevant departments of the countries involved have not responded yet.
india has long been a major global arms importer and is looking to develop its arms exports, and sees the protracted russia-ukraine conflict as an opportunity, the report said.
made in india, delivered in europe?
reuters reported on september 19 that according to information from 11 indian and european government and defense industry officials and reuters' analysis of commercial customs data, european countries such as the czech republic and italy have been supplying artillery shells to ukraine from countries outside the european union, and this situation has been going on for a long time.
commercial customs records show that in the two years before the outbreak of the russian-ukrainian conflict in february 2022, india's three major ammunition manufacturers yantra, munitions india and kalyani strategic systems exported a total of $2.8 million (about 19.74 million yuan) worth of ammunition parts to italy, the czech republic, spain and slovenia. this figure increased to $135.25 million between february 2022 and july 2024 after the outbreak of the conflict. the czech republic is currently leading the supply of artillery shells to ukraine from countries outside the european union.
a former senior yantra official said several western companies have explosive filling capabilities but lack the manufacturing capacity to mass-produce artillery shells. among them is italian military contractor mes (meccanica per l'elettronica e servomeccanismi), which was one of the companies that shipped indian-made artillery shells to ukraine.
mes is the yantra's largest foreign customer. the former senior official said mes buys empty shells from india and fills them with explosives.
yantra said in its 2022-2023 annual report that it had reached an agreement with an unnamed italian customer to establish a production line for l15a1 artillery shells. the former senior yantra official said the customer was called mes.
citing customs data, reuters reported that yantra shipped $35 million worth of 155mm l15a1 blank ammunition to mes between february 2022 and july 2024.
customs records further show that in february 2024, uk-based arms company dince hill, whose board includes a mes executive, exported $6.7 million of ammunition, including 155mm l15a1 artillery shells, from italy to ukraine.
according to the customs declaration, the shells were manufactured by mes for the ukrainian ministry of defense to "boost ukraine's defense capabilities and mobilization readiness."
reuters reported that in another similar example, in may this year, spanish minister of transport puente shared an end-user agreement signed by czech defense officials on social platforms. according to the agreement, a batch of 120mm and 125mm artillery shells were transferred from munitions india to arms dealer czech defense systems (cds), with a total value of more than us$9 million. customs records on march 27 this year confirmed the transfer.
at the time, pro-palestinian groups in spain said the ammunition was destined for israel, but spain's el mundo newspaper reported in may that the ammunition's final destination was actually ukraine, a claim confirmed to reuters by a spanish official and another person familiar with the matter.
under india's arms export regulations, if unauthorized transfers occur, future arms sales may be at risk of being terminated.
the above-mentioned arms contractors and the defense ministries of the relevant countries did not respond to reuters' request for comment. it is not clear whether the ammunition was resold by india's european customers or donated by india to ukraine.
india pushes for arms exports
at a meeting on august 30 this year, indian defense minister rajnath singh said that india's defense exports exceeded us$2.5 billion in the last fiscal year and hoped to increase this figure to about us$6 billion by 2029.
india exported just over $3 billion worth of weapons between 2018 and 2023, according to the stockholm international peace research institute.
in january this year, indian foreign ministry spokesman randhir jaiswal said that india did not deliver or sell artillery shells to ukraine.
two indian government sources and two defense industry sources told reuters that only a tiny fraction of the ammunition ukraine has used in the conflict came from india. one of the officials estimated that indian ammunition accounted for less than 1 percent of ukraine's total arms imports since the start of the conflict.
after india was exposed to transfer ammunition to ukraine, an indian official said that the indian government is monitoring the situation. the official, along with a defense industry executive with direct knowledge of the ammunition transfer, said that india has not taken any action to restrict (ammunition) supplies to europe.
this is the first time reuters has reported details of india's transfer of ammunition to ukraine. the indian ministry of foreign affairs described the report as "speculative and misleading". the russian ministry of foreign affairs and the ministry of defense of india did not respond.
reuters reported that russia has been india's main arms supplier for decades and an important partner of india. in july this year, indian prime minister modi chose russia for his first visit after winning his third term in office. after the outbreak of the russia-ukraine conflict, modi refused to join the western-led sanctions against russia.
as for the issue of india transferring ammunition to ukraine, three indian officials revealed that the russian side raised this issue on at least two occasions, including in a meeting between russian foreign minister lavrov and indian foreign minister subrahmanyam jaishankar in july this year.
the paper reporter zhu runyu
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