September is probably when one ship will be turned over to the Indians, and early in the new year, another. The authorities, who wished to remain anonymous due to the delicate nature of the matter, stated that the war in Ukraine is the reason for the ships’ two-year delay in delivery.

The Indians and the Russians inked a four-ship agreement that included the two frigates back in 2018. The officials stated that supply chain problems relating to the war had caused delays in the construction of the other two ships, which are being built in India in partnership with Russia.

The Ukraine-made gas turbines were to power the guided-missile frigates equipped with stealth features. Trade between Russia and Ukraine ceased in 2014 as a result of Russia’s annexation of

Weapons supplies to India had been delayed for more than a year due to US sanctions against Russia for its involvement in the crisis in Ukraine, as both nations attempted to find a way to make payments without breaking the penalties.

Unnamed sources added that Russia and India, two more vital allies, had managed to resolve the payment problem.

The Indian Ministry of Defence, the Indian Navy, and the Ministry of External Affairs all declined to comment.

While New Delhi pays Moscow in Indian rupees for armaments, it pays for crude oil with a combination of US dollars and UAE dirhams. Russia’s biggest buyer of its maritime oil is India. The system experienced a temporary malfunction when billions of dollars’ worth of payments gathered in India. The people added that because of its strained relations with Beijing, New Delhi had declined to pay in Chinese yuan.

While it courted India in the midst of escalating conflict with China, the US has mostly abstained from punishing India for its contacts with Russia, including delaying punishments for a sophisticated air defence system.

According to the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute, Russia continues to be India’s largest supplier of military hardware, making up 36% of the country’s imports of armaments, even though the country is purchasing more weapons from the US and France and Prime Minister Narendra Modi has launched an aggressive programme to build military hardware domestically.

In a recent analysis, SIPRI, an independent think tank that researches the global arms trade, reveals that fewer than half of India’s weapons imports came from Russia for the first time in 60 years.