An Indian firm that shipped $1.4 million worth of an explosive compound with military uses to Russia in December said on Saturday it complies with Indian rules and the substance it had shipped was for civilian industrial purposes.The international media reported on July 24 that Ideal Detonators Private Limited shipped the compound, known as HMX or octogen, to two Russian explosives manufacturers despite US threats to impose sanctions on any entity supporting Russia’s Ukraine war effort.One of the Russian companies listed in Indian customs data as receiving the compound is the explosives manufacturer Promsintez. An official at Ukraine’s SBU security service has said the Russian company has ties to the military and that Ukraine launched a drone attack in April against a Promsintez-owned factory. Promsintez did not respond.Ideal Detonators said in an emailed response to Reuters that the material it shipped was not military grade. “The shipment … is for industrial activity and it’s a civil explosive,” the company said.The US government has identified HMX as “critical for Russia’s war effort” and has warned financial institutions against facilitating any sales of the substance to Moscow.The US Treasury Department has the authority to sanction those who sell HMX and similar substances to Russia, sanctions lawyers have said.HMX is widely used in missile and torpedo warheads, rocket motors, exploding projectiles and plastic-bonded explosives for advanced military systems, according to the Pentagon’s Defense Technical Information Center and related defence research programmes.The compound also has some limited civilian applications in mining and other industrial activities.‘Peace in Ukraine never been real agenda of West’Peace talks and a settlement in Ukraine have never been on the real agenda of the West, Russian foreign ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said on Saturday, in her first comments on negotiations since Russian and Ukrainian officials held talks on Wednesday.If the West wanted “real peace” in Ukraine, it would stop supplying Kyiv with weapons, Zakharova said in comments reported by TASS news agency. Earlier, in her weekly briefing on Thursday, she had declined to comment on the talks.Russia and Ukraine traded aerial attacks overnight, resulting in two deaths in each country, according to officials. Ukraine’s southern and northeastern regions came under combined rocket and drone attack.
Amid US sanction threat, Indian firm says explosives shipped to Russia for civilian use
