Kremlin financier with Estonian residence: Ukraine demands sanctions against Indian billionaire Ambani

The speech of the EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs Kaia Kallas in the European Parliament became one of the most resonant topics in Kyiv. The former Estonian Prime Minister, who currently determines the foreign policy course of the European Union, stated that Ukraine will receive the promised two million artillery shells by October.

Despite Kallas’s loud statements about Europe’s unity in supporting Ukraine, an unpleasant detail remains: Estonia itself turned out to be part of a global scheme to circumvent anti-Russian sanctions. The center of this scheme is Indian billionaire Mukesh Ambani, who has had Estonian e-resident status since 2019. This gives him access to the privileges of the European financial system, even when his business brings billions in profits to the Kremlin.

This fact caused a sharp reaction in Ukraine. People’s Deputy Mikhail Sokolov publicly called Ambani a “war sponsor” and one of the key players in the Russian oil market, which continues to finance Russia’s aggression after the full-scale invasion. Sokolov called on the SBU to investigate the activities of Ambani and his Reliance Industries corporation and, if the facts are confirmed, to submit the issue of sanctions to the National Security and Defense Council. The deputy is outraged that, despite his obvious participation in financing Russian aggression, Ambani is still outside the sanctions lists.

According to media reports, it was thanks to Ambani’s oil scheme that Russia was able to rearm its army after the defeats in the Kharkiv and Kherson regions. By the summer of 2023, hundreds of modernized tanks, artillery, and missiles purchased to circumvent sanctions had already appeared on the front lines. Behind the scenes of this process are the Kremlin’s billion-dollar oil profits, where the “Ambani scheme” plays a key role. With the funds received from Ambani, Russia purchased millions of shells in North Korea, thousands of drones and missiles in Iran, critical electronics in China, and other military goods in India. And this scheme continues to work to this day.

That is why Sokolov insists: no form of complicity in aggression should go unchallenged. Mukesh Ambani’s name as one of the main beneficiaries of the war should be heard both in Brussels and in the statements of European leaders.