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  • 14 Nov, 2024

Indian strategic affairs experts have expressed concerns that the West has been trying to disrupt the growing India-Russia relations through 'gray zone warfare', including through the use of misleading media reports.

India’s Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) has said that New Delhi hasn't exported any artillery shells to Kyiv, as it reacted to media reports about the presence of India-made ammunition in Ukraine.

We have also seen some media reports in this regard. But we can categorically say that we have not sent any of these artillery ammunitions to Ukraine. We have not exported them and we have not sent them," MEA spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal said in response to a question from Sputnik India at the weekly press briefing in New Delhi on Thursday.

Media reports citing pro-Ukraine defense social media accounts claimed that an India-made artillery charge container was being used by the Ukrainian forces in the ongoing conflict against Russia.

These reports speculated that the artillery shells could have been transported to Ukraine from European Union (EU) countries such as Poland or Slovenia after being procured from India.

Reportedly, the shells bear the mark of the Nalanda Ordnance Factory in the Indian state of Bihar.

The misleading reports surfaced soon after India's External Affairs Minister (EAM) S Jaishankar concluded his five-day official visit to Moscow last month.

During his meetings with Russian President Vladimir Putin, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, and Deputy Prime Minister, and the Minister of Trade and Industry, Denis Manturov, Jaishankar reaffirmed New Delhi's commitment to "time-tested" ties with Moscow.

Since the eruption of the Ukraine conflict last February, New Delhi has refused to buckle under Western pressure to vote against Moscow at the United Nations (UN) or scale down its strategic ties with Russia.

On the contrary, India has significantly scaled up its commercial ties with Russia to record levels since last year, with Moscow now ranking as the top energy supplier to the South Asian nation.