Artillery shells sold by Indian arms makers have been diverted by European customers to Ukraine and New Delhi has not intervened to stop the trade despite protests from Moscow, according to eleven Indian and European government and defence industry officials, as well as a Reuters analysis of commercially available customs data.

The transfer of munitions to support Ukraine’s defence against Russia has occurred for more than a year, according to the sources and the customs data. Indian arms export regulations limit the use of weaponry to the declared purchaser, who risks future sales being terminated if unauthorised transfers occur.

The Kremlin has raised the issue on at least two occasions, including during a July meeting between Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and his Indian counterpart, three Indian officials said.

Details of the ammunition transfers are reported by Reuters for the first time.

The foreign and defence ministries of Russia and India did not respond to questions. In January, Indian foreign ministry spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal told a news conference that India had not sent or sold artillery shells to Ukraine.

Two Indian government and two defence industry sources told Reuters that Delhi produced only a very small amount of the ammunition being used by Ukraine, with one official estimating that it was under 1% of the total arms imported by Kyiv since the war. The news agency couldn’t determine if the munitions were resold or donated to Kyiv by the European customers.

Among the European countries sending Indian munitions to Ukraine are Italy and the Czech Republic, which is leading an initiative to supply Kyiv with artillery shells from outside the European Union, according to a Spanish and a senior Indian official, as well as a former top executive at Yantra India, a state-owned company whose munitions are being used by Ukraine.

The Indian official said that Delhi was monitoring the situation. But, along with a defence industry executive with direct knowledge of the transfers, he said India had not taken any action to throttle the supply to Europe. Like most of the 20 people interviewed by Reuters, they spoke on condition of anonymity due to the sensitivity of the matter.

The Ukrainian, Italian, Spanish and Czech defence ministries did not respond to requests for comment.

Delhi and Washington, Ukraine’s main security backer, have recently strengthened defence and diplomatic cooperation against the backdrop of a rising China, which both regard as their main rival.

India also has warm ties with Russia, its primary 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 largest weapons importer, also sees the lengthy war in Europe as an opportunity to develop its nascent arms export sector, according to six Indian sources familiar with official thinking.

Ukraine, which is battling to contain a Russian offensive toward the eastern logistics hub of Pokrovsk, has a dire shortage of artillery ammunition.

The White House declined to comment and the U.S. State Department referred questions on Delhi’s arms exports to the Indian government.

India exported just over $3 billion of arms between 2018 and 2023, according to data compiled by the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute think-tank.

Defence Minister Rajnath Singh said at an Aug. 30 conference that defence exports surpassed $2.5 billion in the last fiscal year and that Delhi wanted to increase that to about $6 billion by 2029.

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 in munitions components to Italy and the Czech Republic, as well as Spain and Slovenia, where defence contractors have invested heavily in supply chains for Ukraine.

Between February 2022 and July 2024, the figure had increased to $135.25 million, the data show, including completed munitions, which India began exporting to the four nations.

Arzan Tarapore, an India defence expert at Stanford University, said that Delhi’s push to expand its arms exports was a major factor in the transfer of its arms to Ukraine.

“Probably in the sudden recent expansion, some instances of end-user violations have occurred.”

Discreet Deliveries

Unlisted Italian defence contractor Meccanica per l’Elettronica e Servomeccanismi (MES) was among the companies sending Indian-made shells to Ukraine, said the former top Yantra official.

MES is Yantra’s biggest foreign client. The executive said the Rome-based company buys empty shells from India and fills them with explosives.

Several Western firms had explosive filling capabilities but lack the manufacturing capacity to mass produce artillery shells, the executive said.

Yantra said in its 2022-23 annual report that it had agreed a deal with an unnamed Italian client to set up a manufacturing line for L15A1 shells, which the former Yantra executive identified as MES.

MES and Yantra India did not respond to emails seeking comment.

Customs data indicate that Yantra shipped $35 million worth of empty 155mm L15A1 shells to MES between February 2022 and July 2024.

Customs records also show that in February 2024, U.K.-based arms company Dince Hill – whose board includes a top MES executive – exported $6.7 million in ammunition from Italy to Ukraine.

Among the exports were 155mm L15A1 shells, which the customs declaration said were manufactured by MES for Ukraine’s Defence Ministry and supplied for “promoting the defense capability and mobilization readiness of Ukraine.”

Dince Hill did not respond to an email seeking comment. Its new owner, Rome-based Effequattro 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 that authorised the transfer of 120mm and 125mm ammunition shells from Munitions India to arms dealer Czech Defence Systems.

Pro-Palestinian activists had alleged that the Borkum, a vessel carrying Indian-made arms which had stopped in a Spanish port, was carrying the weapons to Israel.

Spanish newspaper El Mundo reported in May the final destination was actually Ukraine. A Spanish official and another source familiar with the matter confirmed to Reuters that Kyiv was the end user. Munitions India and CDS did not respond to questions.

Customs records dated March 27 show Munitions India had shipped 10,000 rounds of 120mm and 125mm mortar shells, worth more than $9 million, from Chennai to CDS.

Friendly Fire

Russia, which supplies more than 60% of Delhi’s arms imports, is a valued partner for India. In July, PM Modi chose Moscow for his first bilateral international trip since being elected to a third term.

At another meeting that month in Kazakhstan between top Indian diplomat Subrahmanyam Jaishankar and Lavrov, the Russian minister pressed his counterpart about Indian munitions being used by Ukrainians and complained that some were made by state-owned Indian companies, according to an Indian official with direct knowledge of the encounter.

The official did not share Jaishankar’s response.

Walter Ladwig, a South Asia security expert at King’s College London, said the diversion of a relatively small amount of ammunition was geopolitically useful for Delhi.

“It allows India to show partners in the West that it is not ‘on Russia’s side’ in the Russia-Ukraine conflict,” he said, adding that Moscow held little leverage over Delhi’s decisions.

(This story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)

Amid massive outrage over the death of a 26-year-old chartered accountant with Ernst and Young India, allegedly due to work stress, the Union Labour Ministry has said it has taken up a complaint and will be investigating the circumstances that led to the death of Anna Sebastian Perayil.

“Deeply saddened by the tragic loss of Anna Sebastian Perayil. A thorough investigation into the allegations of an unsafe and exploitative work environment is underway. We are committed to ensuring justice & @LabourMinistry has officially taken up the complaint. @mansukhmandviya,” Minister of State for Labour Shobha Karandlaje said in a post on X.

Deeply saddened by the tragic loss of Anna Sebastian Perayil. A thorough investigation into the allegations of an unsafe and exploitative work environment is underway. We are committed to ensuring justice & @LabourMinistry has officially taken up the complaint.@mansukhmandviya https://t.co/1apsOm594d

— Shobha Karandlaje (@ShobhaBJP) September 19, 2024

She was responding to a post by BJP leader Rajeev Chandrasekhar, who described Anna’s death as “very sad but also disturbing at many levels” and sought a probe into her family’s allegations of an exploitative work environment at Ernst and Young India.

A Heartbroken Mother’s Letter

In a letter to Ernst & Young India chairman Rajiv Memani, Anna’s mother Anita Augustine said her daughter died just four months after joining the company and called on its leadership to change a work culture that “seems to glorify overwork while neglecting the very human being behind the role”.

“I am writing this letter as a grieving mother who has lost her precious child, Anna Sebastian Perayil. My heart is heavy, and my soul is shattered as I pen these words, but I believe it is necessary to share our story in the hope that no other family will have to endure the pain we are going through,” the mother wrote in the letter.

She wrote that Anna was an excellent student who topped through school and college and cleared the tough chartered accountancy exam with distinction. “EY was her first job, and she was thrilled to be part of such a prestigious company. But four months later, on July 20th, 2024, my world collapsed when I received the devastating news that Anna had passed away. She was just 26 years old.”

The heartbroken mother narrated the events weeks before she got the crushing news.

“On Saturday, July 6th, my husband and I reached Pune to attend Anna’s CA Convocation. Since she had been complaining of chest constriction upon reaching her PG late at night (around 1 am) for the past week, we took her to the hospital in Pune. Her ECG was normal, and the cardiologist came to allay our fears, telling us she wasn’t getting enough sleep and was eating very late. He prescribed antacids, which reassured us that it wasn’t anything serious Though we had come all the way from Kochi, she insisted on going to work after seeing the doctor, saying there was a lot of work to be done and she wouldn’t get leave. That night, she returned to her PG late again On Sunday, July 7th, the day of her convocation, she joined us in the morning, but she was working from home even that day until the afternoon, and we reached the convocation venue late,” she wrote.

“It was my daughter’s great dream to take her parents to her convocation with her own hard-earned money. She booked our flight tickets and took us. It breaks my heart to tell you that even during those two days, which were the last we would spend with our child, she couldn’t enjoy them because of the work pressure.” Anita Augustine wrote that Anna worked late into the night, even on weekends, “with no opportunity to catch her breath”. “Her assistant manager once called her at night with a task that needed to be completed by the next morning, leaving her with barely any time to rest or recover. When she voiced her concerns, she was met with the dismissive response, “You can work at night, that’s what we all do.”

“Anna would return to her room utterly exhausted, sometimes collapsing on the bed without even changing her clothes, only to be bombarded with messages asking for more reports. She was putting in her best efforts, working very hard to meet the deadlines. She was a fighter to the core, not someone to give up easily. We told her to quit, but she wanted to learn and gain new exposure. However, the overwhelming pressure proved too much even for her,” the mother wrote.

The family said they were deeply hurt because no one from the organisation attended Anna’s funeral. “No one from EY attended Anna’s funeral. This absence at such a critical moment, for an employee who gave her all to your organization until her last breath, is deeply hurtful. Anna deserved better, and so do all the employees who continue to work under these conditions,” her mother wrote, hoping that her daughter’s experience “leads to real change”.

What Ernst & Young India Said

Ernst & Young India has issued a statement and said it was deeply saddened by Anna’s death and was taking the family’s correspondence with the “utmost seriousness and humility”.

“We are deeply saddened by Anna Sebastian’s tragic and untimely passing in July 2024, and our deepest condolences go to the bereaved family. Anna was a part of the Audit team at S R Batliboi, a member firm of EY Global, in Pune for a brief period of four months, joining the firm on 18 March 2024. That her promising career was cut short in this tragic manner is an irreparable loss for all of us. While no measure can compensate for the loss experienced by the family, we have provided all the assistance as we always do in such times of distress and will continue to do so,” the statement said.

“We are taking the family’s correspondence with the utmost seriousness and humility. We place the highest importance on the well-being of all employees and will continue to find ways to improve and provide a healthy workplace for our 1,00,000 people across EY member firms in India,” the company added.

Israel denounces the Palestinian-drafted, non-binding resolution as “diplomatic terrorism”. 

​Israel denounces the Palestinian-drafted, non-binding resolution as “diplomatic terrorism”.