NEW DELHI: An Indian company is among the targets of a fresh sanctions package agreed upon by the European Union (EU) that is directed at entities accused of supporting Russia’s war against Ukraine.
According to a Kashmir Media Service report on Thursday, nearly 200 entities and individuals in total will be subject to the latest sanctions either for their alleged role in helping Russia procure weapons or of involvement in kidnapping Ukrainian children, a report by Reuters said.
The Indian company is accused of helping Russia’s ‘war machine’ access banned components and technologies, the Bloomberg news agency reported. The sanctions proposal was cited by Financial Times as saying: “It is also appropriate to include on that list certain other entities in third countries that indirectly support Russia’s military and industrial complex … by trading in such components.”
Three companies in mainland China as well as businesses in Sri Lanka, Thailand and Turkey – among other countries – are also being sanctioned, FT’s report said. This marks the first time Indian and Chinese businesses will be subject to EU sanctions.
The sanctions involve banning the entities in question from travelling to or doing business in the EU, Reuters said. The names of the entities and individuals sanctioned will be published when the package appears in the EU’s legal journal, FT‘s report also said.
India has declined to publicly criticise Russia for its war against Ukraine, although it has called for an end to the violence. Following sanctions on Russia from the G7 countries, India has also purchased discounted Russian oil, arguing it had a duty to take advantage of lower prices whenever possible.
It had at one point emerged as the biggest buyer of Russian oil and sourced up to 40% of its oil imports from Moscow in the first half of the fiscal year 2023-24, Reuters reported. India’s external affairs minister S. Jaishankar recently said in an interview to a German newspaper that as far as independent India was concerned, “Russia has never hurt our interests.”
