India has decided to terminate prematurely a large-scale contract to purchase russia’s helicopters, which was signed about 10 years ago. According to this contract India was supposed to receive 80 units of Mi-17V5, but on the 32nd transferred helicopter the Delhi officials terminated the contract.
Thus, India refused from 48 helicopters that were supposed to serve in the armed forces and other security forces. This was stated both by Indian and russian media, emphasizing that the decision was allegedly planned before February 24 and is related to the “Made in India” program. What is more, that it is not related to the invasion of Ukraine and the technological embargo from the West, which has already caused huge problems with military equipment production and repairing in russia.
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Defense Express reminds, that Indian arms market is the most important for russia generating about 25% of the Kremlin’s total revenue from arms sales. Numerous contracts involved the sale of almost all weapons, from jets and helicopters to nuclear submarines and aircraft carriers. Particularly, in 2019 the announced volume of orders was worth 10 billion dollars.
But it seems that Delhi is beginning to understand the risks of cooperating with russia amid their war crimes. It will also be highly questionable for the Kremlin to find new buyers for its weapons, not only because of sanctions, but also due to the destruction of a huge myth called "Russian weapons" that was annihilated by the Armed Forces of Ukraine.
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