Boeing and Airbus shipments passed on to Russia via India, despite sanctions
Caroline Varon (Disclose)
Indian intermediaries re-export aircraft parts worth millions from western firms to buyers in Russia, customs data up until last September shows.
In March 2022, as Russian missiles rained down on Kyiv, Ukraine’s allies scrambled to isolate Moscow with aerospace giants Boeing and Airbus among the first western companies to announce a clean break.
"In line with international sanctions now in place, Airbus has suspended support services to Russian airlines, as well as the supply of spare parts to the country,” the European aerospace giant declared, following on the heels of its US competitor Boeing.
But three years into the full-scale invasion, with strict western sanctions forbidding EU and UK companies from selling aircraft parts to Russia, and the US imposing massive export restrictions, a trove of customs data appears to tell a very different story.
Parts distributed by Boeing, Airbus subsidiary Satair, Leonardo-linked Italian firm Superjet International and over 100 suppliers across Europe and the US have reached Russia via Indian intermediaries, Investigate Europe analysis of customs data indicates.
Reporters tracked over 700 individual cargoes — with an estimated value of more than $50 million — from the premises of western companies to India and then onto airlines and firms in Russia, between January 2023 and September 2024. Items unloaded there ranged from critical generators, sensors, propeller blades and cockpit displays to small screws, bolts and filters.
More than 40 per cent of the cargoes sent to Russian companies, long reliant on foreign-made parts, appear to have initially come from the US, and one third came from European airports.
There is no suggestion of illegality on part of the western suppliers nor that those companies were aware that their products would reach Russia.
"In line with international sanctions now in place, Airbus has suspended support services to Russian airlines, as well as the supply of spare parts to the country,” the European aerospace giant declared, following on the heels of its US competitor Boeing.
But three years into the full-scale invasion, with strict western sanctions forbidding EU and UK companies from selling aircraft parts to Russia, and the US imposing massive export restrictions, a trove of customs data appears to tell a very different story.
Parts distributed by Boeing, Airbus subsidiary Satair, Leonardo-linked Italian firm Superjet International and over 100 suppliers across Europe and the US have reached Russia via Indian intermediaries, Investigate Europe analysis of customs data indicates.
Reporters tracked over 700 individual cargoes — with an estimated value of more than $50 million — from the premises of western companies to India and then onto airlines and firms in Russia, between January 2023 and September 2024. Items unloaded there ranged from critical generators, sensors, propeller blades and cockpit displays to small screws, bolts and filters.
More than 40 per cent of the cargoes sent to Russian companies, long reliant on foreign-made parts, appear to have initially come from the US, and one third came from European airports.
There is no suggestion of illegality on part of the western suppliers nor that those companies were aware that their products would reach Russia.
A line of Sukhoi Superjet 100 airplanes of Aeroflot at Sheremetyevo international airport in Moscow in 2017.Shutterstock
While previous reporting has focused on intermediaries in Turkey, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and China, the investigation, published with media in 11 countries, reveals how India has become an important transit route for Russia’s ailing aviation industry. Some of the Indian companies involved were flagged by the US late last year as being part of “sanctions evasion” networks.
After being confronted with findings from the investigation, Superjet International said it would “temporarily suspend” business with Allestro Aero Solutions, an Indian firm which customs data suggests show had re-exported its high-value parts to a sanctioned Russian company.
More than 200 of the items traded could have the potential for military use, analysis of their declared customs codes shows. Most of the Russian importers were civilian airlines. These included Utair, a company sanctioned in December by the EU for providing “logistical support to the Russian Armed Forces”, which received around a quarter of the cargoes.
According to French aviation expert Xavier Tytelman, even the biggest companies can’t track every shipment beyond the first buyer — but that doesn’t absolve them of responsibility. “For example, a French company with too many requests coming from Kazakhstan could say to the French government, ‘I think some of my parts are being diverted,’” he said.
After being confronted with findings from the investigation, Superjet International said it would “temporarily suspend” business with Allestro Aero Solutions, an Indian firm which customs data suggests show had re-exported its high-value parts to a sanctioned Russian company.
More than 200 of the items traded could have the potential for military use, analysis of their declared customs codes shows. Most of the Russian importers were civilian airlines. These included Utair, a company sanctioned in December by the EU for providing “logistical support to the Russian Armed Forces”, which received around a quarter of the cargoes.
According to French aviation expert Xavier Tytelman, even the biggest companies can’t track every shipment beyond the first buyer — but that doesn’t absolve them of responsibility. “For example, a French company with too many requests coming from Kazakhstan could say to the French government, ‘I think some of my parts are being diverted,’” he said.
Boeing and Airbus have sent numerous cargoes to firms in India which later re-exported them to Russia, according to customs data analysis.Shutterstock
Boeing and Airbus’ suspect Indian clients
Nestled between a beauty salon and a car repair shop on a Delhi side street are the low-key headquarters of Aerotrust Aviation. “We deliver the best,” the text wrapped beneath the company’s logo proudly proclaims. What they deliver internationally are spare parts for aircraft – almost exclusively to Russia.
Aerotrust formed in late 2021 and quickly established itself in the Russian market. Of the roughly $7 million worth of parts it has dispatched in total to Russia since January 2023, around 80 per cent can be traced back to the facilities of western companies, analysis of customs data suggests. Its top Russian client appears to have been the state-owned airline group Aeroflot - including its Pobeda Airlines and Rossiya Airlines brands - which has struggled to keep its fleet in the air in the face of global sanctions. In 2023, around 15 cargoes seem to have left Boeing facilities for Aerotrust, most of which were later re-exported to Russian buyers, including Aeroflot.
In total, Boeing has sent at least 80 cargoes to India that were later re-exported in part or in whole to Russia since 2023, according to the analysis. Most of these trades, including valves, fasteners, fuel sealants and a battery, went via another Indian buyer: Ascend Aviation.
A host of western firms have sold aircraft parts to Ascend which later went to Russia, including Airbus, a company part-owned by the French, German and Spanish states. Airbus subsidiary Satair sent 12 cargoes to the Indian firm between September 2023 and May 2024, customs data suggests. All later went to Russian buyers, Aeroflot and Ural Airlines among them.
The Ascend Aviation website in September 2024. It has since been stripped of Airbus and other branded aircraft images.
The company, which was placed under US sanctions in late 2024, is registered at an industrial area next to Delhi Airport.
‘Sanctions evasion’ targets
On 30 October 2024, the US sanctioned Ascend and its two directors for being part of “sanctions evasion” networks and exporting hundreds of shipments to companies in Russia, including US-origin aircraft components.
Corporate filings show Ascend’s revenues spiked from 72 million Rupees in 2021 to 985 million Rupees (€10.8 million) last year. This coincided with significant sales to Russia, which US authorities claim included the transfer of over $200,000 worth of sensitive components.
The sanctions were part of a wave of action from the US State, Treasury and Commerce Departments intended to “disrupt support for Russia’s military-industrial base” by targeting international intermediaries. Three of the 12 Indian firms identified by Investigate Europe as supplying western aircraft parts to Russia were designated.
The Indian government said at the time that none of the 19 firms sanctioned overall by the US were in breach of national law. Ameeta Verma Duggal, partner at Delhi-based law firm DGS Associates, said that despite the measures many of them would likely continue trading with Russia. “Several of these firms acting as intermediaries are small businesses which were not really export oriented, or even had a considerable business presence in western markets before the conflict. They saw an opportunity and cashed in,” she said.
“While no concrete evidence of such circumvention involving Indian intermediaries has been found so far, the Commission remains vigilant”
— European Commission
European Union authorities, however, are yet to penalise any of them.
The European Commission said it closely monitors attempts to circumvent sanctions, but had not found any cases involving aviation firms in India. “While no concrete evidence of such circumvention involving Indian intermediaries has been found so far, the Commission remains vigilant and will take action if and when such evidence comes to light,” said Olof Gill, its spokesperson for financial services.
Among the other Indian companies targeted by the US late last year for having “diverted or attempted to divert” aircraft parts to Russia was Agrim Aviation. Investigate Europe reporters found data showing it had been supplying a now-sanctioned military contractor.
More than 160 shipments from western companies went via the Delhi-based firm to Russia between January 2023 and September 2024, customs data shows.
Almost all of these cargoes appear to have gone to Utair, a Russian civilian airline sanctioned by the EU in December 2024 for providing support to the Russian Armed Forces. The EU said Utair aircraft had been “transporting military personnel assigned to the combat zone … conducting flights within Russian-occupied Ukraine”.
Among the shipments were generators dispatched from a Dutch helicopter business, a pair of propeller blades courtesy of a UK spares supplier and six engines from a warehouse in Florida.
The European Commission said it closely monitors attempts to circumvent sanctions, but had not found any cases involving aviation firms in India. “While no concrete evidence of such circumvention involving Indian intermediaries has been found so far, the Commission remains vigilant and will take action if and when such evidence comes to light,” said Olof Gill, its spokesperson for financial services.
From the Côte d’Azur to Moscow
Among the other Indian companies targeted by the US late last year for having “diverted or attempted to divert” aircraft parts to Russia was Agrim Aviation. Investigate Europe reporters found data showing it had been supplying a now-sanctioned military contractor.
More than 160 shipments from western companies went via the Delhi-based firm to Russia between January 2023 and September 2024, customs data shows.
Almost all of these cargoes appear to have gone to Utair, a Russian civilian airline sanctioned by the EU in December 2024 for providing support to the Russian Armed Forces. The EU said Utair aircraft had been “transporting military personnel assigned to the combat zone … conducting flights within Russian-occupied Ukraine”.
Among the shipments were generators dispatched from a Dutch helicopter business, a pair of propeller blades courtesy of a UK spares supplier and six engines from a warehouse in Florida.
An Airbus Eurocopter operated by Heli Air Monaco departing from Courchevel Heliport, France.Shutterstock
In one case, parts worth almost $250,000 appear to have been exported by boutique charter service Heli Air Monaco. Ordinarily the company ferries people between airports in the Côte D’Azur and offers its customers exclusive wine tours. But since the Ukraine war, it seems to have found a new revenue stream: selling helicopter parts, many made by Airbus, to India, customs data indicates.
Heli Air Monaco exported 10 cargoes from France to Agrim Aviation, including a delivery of booster pumps needed to move fuel to an aircraft’s engines in January 2024. All later went to Utair Engineering, part of the synonymous airline placed under EU sanctions the same year. Heli Air Monaco denied any wrongdoing. Despite several attempts to contact the company, they did not provide any further details by the time of publication.
There is no suggestion that these or other western firms were aware that their shipments to India would end up in Russia.
Determining if sanctions evasion has occurred can be very difficult — a difficulty that some companies seek to exploit, Maria Shagina of the International Institute for Strategic Studies explains.
“Some companies indeed don't know where their products end up; others use it as a pretext to circumvent sanctions. Poor supply chain visibility, particularly in the second and third tier, is a key problem,” she said.
Since 2022, circumvention hubs have sprung up across Asia and the Middle East, with authorities engaged in a game of whack-a-mole trying to limit intermediary routes from feeding aircraft parts to Russia.
Heli Air Monaco exported 10 cargoes from France to Agrim Aviation, including a delivery of booster pumps needed to move fuel to an aircraft’s engines in January 2024. All later went to Utair Engineering, part of the synonymous airline placed under EU sanctions the same year. Heli Air Monaco denied any wrongdoing. Despite several attempts to contact the company, they did not provide any further details by the time of publication.
There is no suggestion that these or other western firms were aware that their shipments to India would end up in Russia.
‘Illicit procurement network’
Determining if sanctions evasion has occurred can be very difficult — a difficulty that some companies seek to exploit, Maria Shagina of the International Institute for Strategic Studies explains.
“Some companies indeed don't know where their products end up; others use it as a pretext to circumvent sanctions. Poor supply chain visibility, particularly in the second and third tier, is a key problem,” she said.
Since 2022, circumvention hubs have sprung up across Asia and the Middle East, with authorities engaged in a game of whack-a-mole trying to limit intermediary routes from feeding aircraft parts to Russia.
“Some companies indeed don't know where their products end up; others use it as a pretext to circumvent sanctions.”
— Maria Shagina, International Institute for Strategic Studies
A recent US court case shows how India has become an increasingly important route for Russian companies seeking to access restricted items.
US prosecutors allege the owner of Arezo Aviation Services, Sanjay Kaushik, imported critical aircraft parts worth millions from the US to India, before re-exporting them to Russia as part of an “illicit procurement network” also involving an Austrian company.
Kaushik was arrested in Miami in October and faces up to 60 years in prison if found guilty. He has denied any wrongdoing.
One high-risk product traded by his firm, according to US court documents, was a $500,000 adaptive flight display, which provides pilots with real-time flight data. The part was shipped from the US to Arezo in August 2023, before being sent on to a little-known Russian buyer called PDS Avia.
Private emails accessed by US special agents show that Kaushik and his Austrian partner stood to make $15,000 each in commission on the trade. A Russian broker would get $30,000. Investigate Europe traced several high-value cargoes from the US to Arezo and then on to Russia buyers.
Responding to Investigate Europe, the Austrian company denied involvement in any illegal transactions, nor that they knew any parts would be going to Russia.
US prosecutors allege the owner of Arezo Aviation Services, Sanjay Kaushik, imported critical aircraft parts worth millions from the US to India, before re-exporting them to Russia as part of an “illicit procurement network” also involving an Austrian company.
Kaushik was arrested in Miami in October and faces up to 60 years in prison if found guilty. He has denied any wrongdoing.
One high-risk product traded by his firm, according to US court documents, was a $500,000 adaptive flight display, which provides pilots with real-time flight data. The part was shipped from the US to Arezo in August 2023, before being sent on to a little-known Russian buyer called PDS Avia.
Private emails accessed by US special agents show that Kaushik and his Austrian partner stood to make $15,000 each in commission on the trade. A Russian broker would get $30,000. Investigate Europe traced several high-value cargoes from the US to Arezo and then on to Russia buyers.
Responding to Investigate Europe, the Austrian company denied involvement in any illegal transactions, nor that they knew any parts would be going to Russia.
Maintenance staff work on an Airbus a320 in Saint-Petersburg, Russia in 2016.Shutterstock
Inside an aircraft repair hanger belonging to Utair Engineering in Tyumen, Siberia. Shutterstock
'High priority' parts reach Russia
Within the trade data analysed by Investigate Europe, more than 200 items were labelled with customs codes flagged on a joint G7 list of so-called Common High Priority goods, described by authorities as critical to “Russian military systems” or having been found on the battlefield in Ukraine. The parts included navigation equipment, generators, radars and an array of small mechanical elements.
The codes cover a broad range of items and original shippers of the parts, as specified in customs data, included Airbus subsidiary Satair, Boeing and Gulfstream, among others.
In October 2023, a component needed to transfer fluids and gases in an aircraft left Satair’s Copenhagen facility for Ascend Aviation. The declared custom code of this hose assembly had been added to the high priority list a month earlier. It later moved from Delhi on to Aeroflot, Russia’s state-owned airline. Airbus did not respond when questioned about the trade.
Investigate Europe reporters were able to trace the exact movement of this and hundreds of other goods by cross-checking the bill of lading number (a unique code assigned to cargoes) and other identifiers in import and export data, such as serial and product numbers.
Spoovio/Georgia Choleva
The Italian connection
In some cases, cargoes tracked through India went to sanctioned Russian enterprises. The Venice-headquartered Superjet International started as a joint venture between Italian defence giant Leonardo and Russia’s Sukhoi. On paper, it is now 90 per cent owned by Russian company United Aircraft Corporation (UAC). Leonardo, which is itself part-owned by the Italian state, retains a 10 per cent stake.
After the Russian invasion of Ukraine, Italian authorities froze all Superjet assets owned by UAC. The company, sanctioned by the EU in March 2022 for its military links, is majority-owned by the Russian state.
As a result, the Italian government and Leonardo assumed temporary management control of Superjet in September 2022, with Leonardo maintaining a presence on its board.
In spite of the changes, some Superjet products have still ended up in Russia. On 27 March 2024, the firm sent a side stick unit, a critical cockpit component valued at $400,000, to Allestro Aero Solutions in India. The part, which falls within the high priority list, was quickly re-exported to Moscow for collection by Rapart Services, a company ultimately owned by UAC.
Sanctioned by the EU in 2022 for its links with “Russia’s defence and security sector”, Rapart has acquired more than $3 million of parts from India that originally came from Superjet, analysis of customs data suggets.
“Several intermediaries are small businesses which were not really export oriented, or even had a considerable business presence in western markets before the conflict. They saw an opportunity and cashed in.”
— Ameeta Verma Duggal, DGS Associates
All of the trades went via Allestro Aero Solutions, a firm initially registered as Allestro E-Service in 2015 as a garment retailer. In 2023 it pivoted to buy and sell aircraft parts. Corporate accounts show its revenues went from near zero in 2022 to 259 million Rupees (€2.8 million) last year, while its directors oversee multiple other businesses, spanning textiles to fragrances.
Three of these enterprises share the same location in central Delhi. When visited by our partners at The Reporters’ Collective, Allestro declined to comment on the investigation.
A director at another Allestro-linked business housed in the building, GTC Fragrance, remarked: “None of our companies do illegal trade. We are doing a perfectly legal business. Whatever the issues, let the Indian government take the lead.”
Three of these enterprises share the same location in central Delhi. When visited by our partners at The Reporters’ Collective, Allestro declined to comment on the investigation.
A director at another Allestro-linked business housed in the building, GTC Fragrance, remarked: “None of our companies do illegal trade. We are doing a perfectly legal business. Whatever the issues, let the Indian government take the lead.”
“Airbus and Satair are acting in compliance with the laws and regulations and are actively committed to prevent sanctions circumvention and diversion.”
— Airbus spokesperson
Responses
Apart from the response from the firm connected to Allestro, none of the Indian companies at the centre of this article responded to detailed requests for comment on Investigate Europe’s findings.
Boeing said only that it had “suspended all major operations in Russia, including providing parts, maintenance and technical support for customers” in March 2022. The company failed to answer a series of detailed questions sent by Investigate Europe.
Airbus provided an equally brief response. “Airbus and Satair are acting in compliance with the laws and regulations and are actively committed to prevent sanctions circumvention and diversion,” a spokesperson said.
Superjet International said it operates in full compliance with regulations and “has not sent any shipment to Russia” since sanctions were introduced. The firm said that all its contracts included a “no export to Russia” clause, adding that it was investigating the findings and had temporarily suspended sales to Allestro Aero Solutions.
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The investigation was led by Investigate Europe, a journalism team which produces cross-border investigations. Versions of this story are being published with media partners in 11 countries, including Altreconomia (Italy), Arte (France), Dagsavisen (Norway), Danwatch (Denmark), Der Standard (Austria), Disclose (France), Frontstory (Poland), the Guardian (UK), InfoLibre (Spain), Meduza (Russia), NRC (Netherlands) and the Reporters’ Collective (India).
Journalists Ayushi Kar and Shreegireesh Jalihal at the Reporters’ Collective contributed reporting to this story.
* After publication, a spokesperson for Heli Air Monaco responded to Investigate Europe. They said that the last order received from Agrim Aviation was in December 2023, adding “The components purchased from Héli Air Monaco by Agrim Aviation were not delivered to Russia but to India, the location of the final destination under the terms of orders placed.”