India partners with sanctioned Russian firm to produce passenger aircraft

India’s state-owned Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd. (HAL) signed a deal with Russia’s United Aircraft Corporation (UAC) in Moscow on Oct. 27 to jointly produce the SJ-100 civil passenger aircraft.

The agreement will grant India rights to manufacture the SJ-100 for domestic use, marking the first time a passenger aircraft will be fully produced in India.

Amit Malviya, head of Modi’s party’s National Information and Technology department, called the deal a “historic first.”

“With this, India enters the global civil aviation market, long dominated by Airbus (Europe) and Boeing (US) — breaking their near-monopoly,” he wrote.

UAC is under U.S., EU, and U.K. sanctions for its role in Russia’s military-industrial complex.

Since the start of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022, international sanctions have restricted Russian airlines' access to Western-made spare parts, hampering the country’s ability to maintain and repair its commercial aircraft fleet.

Moscow is now seeking to negotiate the easing of those limitations, arguing they pose a risk to flight safety.

While India has resisted joining Western sanctions and continues to expand cooperation with Russia, the growing partnership has drawn renewed scrutiny from Washington—particularly as pressure mounts over India’s energy ties with Moscow.

Indian refiners are reportedly preparing to scale back imports of Russian oil and shift toward supplies from the Middle East and the United States.

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi has assured U.S. President Donald Trump that India will no longer buy Russian oil, the U.S. leader previously said on Oct. 15.

"So I was not happy that India was buying oil, and (Modi) assured me today that they will not be buying oil from Russia. That's a big step. Now we're going to get China to do the same thing," Trump said in the White House.

Washington previously imposed 50% tariffs on India for its continued import of Russian oil, after Trump threatened to impose secondary sanctions on Russia's trading partners if Moscow failed to make progress towards peace in Ukraine.

Lukoil to sell foreign assets after US sanctions

Lukoil, one of Russia’s largest oil producers, announced Oct. 27 that it plans to sell its foreign assets after new U.S. sanctions targeted the company and its subsidiaries.

The Kyiv IndependentLucy Pakhnyuk