Artillery shells sold by Indian arms makers are being shipped to Ukraine by European customers and New Delhi has not intervened to stop the trade despite protests from Moscow, according to a Reuters analysis of commercially available customs data as well as interviews with eleven Indian and European government and defence industry officials.
The transfer of weapons to support Ukraine’s defence against Russia has been going on for more than a year, according to sources and customs data. Indian arms export rules limit the use of weapons to the declared buyer, risking termination of future sales if an unauthorised transfer occurs.
Three Indian officials said the Kremlin has raised the issue on at least two occasions, including at a meeting between Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and his Indian counterpart in July.
Details of the transfer of ammunition were first reported by Reuters.
The foreign and defense ministries of Russia and India did not respond to questions. In January, Indian Foreign Ministry spokesman Randhir Jaiswal said at a press conference that India had not sent or sold artillery shells to Ukraine.
Two Indian government and two defense industry sources told Reuters that Delhi has produced only a small amount of the ammunition being used by Ukraine, with one official estimating it to be less than 1% of the total weapons imported by Kiev since the war. The news agency could not determine whether these ammunitions were resold or donated to Kiev by European customers.
European countries sending Indian arms to Ukraine also include Italy and the Czech Republic, according to a Spanish and a senior Indian official, as well as a former top official of Yantra India, a state-owned company whose weapons are being used by Ukraine.
The Indian official said Delhi was monitoring the situation. But, along with a defense industry official with direct knowledge of the transfer, he said India had taken no action to stop supplies to Europe. Like most of the 20 people interviewed by Reuters, they spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the matter.
The Ukrainian, Italian, Spanish and Czech defence ministries did not respond to requests for comment.
India and Washington, Ukraine’s key security backer, have recently strengthened defence and diplomatic cooperation against the backdrop of growing influence of China, which both consider their main rival.
India also enjoys warm relations with Russia, its main arms supplier for decades, and Prime Minister Narendra Modi has refused to join the Western-led sanctions regime against Moscow.
But Delhi, long the world’s biggest arms importer, also sees the long war in Europe as an opportunity to grow its nascent arms export sector, according to six Indian sources familiar with official thinking.
Ukraine, which is struggling to stop the Russian advance towards the eastern logistics hub Pokrovsk, is facing a severe shortage of artillery ammunition.
The White House declined to comment and the US State Department referred questions about Delhi’s arms exports to the Indian government.
India exports arms worth nearly $3 billion between 2018 and 2023, according to data compiled by the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute think-tank.
Defence exports crossed $2.5 billion last fiscal and Delhi wants to increase it to about $6 billion by 2029, Defence Minister Rajnath Singh said at a conference on August 30.
Commercially available customs records show that in the two years before the February 2022 invasion, three major Indian ammunition makers — Yantra, Munitions India and Kalyani Strategic Systems — exported just $2.8 million worth of ammunition components to Italy and the Czech Republic, as well as Spain and Slovenia, where defense contractors have invested heavily in supply chains for Ukraine.
The figure rose to $135.25 million between February 2022 and July 2024, including finished munitions that India has begun exporting to four countries, the data showed.
Arzan Tarapore, an India defence expert at Stanford University, said Delhi’s attempt to boost arms exports was a key reason for transferring weapons to Ukraine.
“Perhaps because of the recent sudden expansion, there have been some cases of end-user breaches.”
Discreet Delivery
Unlisted Italian defence contractor Meccanica per l’Electronica e Servomeccanismi (MES) was among the companies shipping India-made shells to Ukraine, a former top Italian official said.
MES is Yantra’s biggest foreign customer. The Rome-based company buys empty cartridges from India and fills them with explosives, the executive said.
The executive said several Western companies have the capability to fill the explosives but lack the manufacturing capacity to mass-produce the artillery shells.
Yantra said in its 2022-23 annual report that it has agreed a deal with an unnamed Italian customer, identified by a former Yantra executive as MES, to set up a manufacturing line for L15A1 shells.
MES and Yantra India did not respond to emails seeking comment.
Customs data shows that Yantra shipped blank 155mm L15A1 shells worth $35 million to the MES between February 2022 and July 2024.
Customs records also show that in February 2024, UK-based arms company Dins Hill – which includes a top MES official on its board – exported ammunition worth $6.7 million from Italy to Ukraine.
The exported ammunition included 155 mm L15A1 shells, which the customs declaration said were manufactured by MES for the Ukrainian Ministry of Defence and supplied to “boost Ukraine’s defence capability and mobilisation readiness”.
Dins Hill did not respond to an email seeking comment. Its new owner, Rome-based Affequattro Consulting, could not be reached.
In another instance, Spain’s Transport Minister Oscar Puente shared on social media in May an end-user agreement signed by a Czech defence official authorising the transfer of 120mm and 125mm ammunition shells from Munitions India to arms dealer Czech Defence Systems.
Pro-Palestinian activists had alleged that the Indian arms-carrying ship Borkum, which docked at a Spanish port, was carrying weapons to Israel.
In May, Spanish newspaper El Mundo reported that the final destination was in fact Ukraine. A Spanish official and another source familiar with the matter confirmed to Reuters that Kiev was the end user. Munitions India and CDS did not respond to questions.
Customs records of March 27 show that Munitions India shipped 10,000 rounds of 120 mm and 125 mm mortar shells worth over $9 million from Chennai to the CDS.
friendly fire
Russia, which supplies more than 60% of Delhi’s arms imports, is a valued partner for India. In July, Prime Minister Modi chose Moscow for his first bilateral international visit after being elected to a third term.
In another meeting between top Indian diplomat Subrahmanyam Jaishankar and Lavrov in Kazakhstan the same month, the Russian minister had asked his counterpart about the use of Indian weapons by Ukraine and complained that some of the weapons were made by state-owned Indian companies, according to an Indian official directly aware of the meeting.
The officer did not agree with Jaishankar’s answer.
Walter Ladwig, a South Asia security expert at King’s College London, said the transfer of relatively small quantities of ammunition was useful for Delhi geopolitically.
“This will give India an opportunity to show the West that it is not ‘on Russia’s side’ in the Russia-Ukraine conflict,” he said, adding that Moscow has no influence on Delhi’s decisions.
(This story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
