India has to be ready to fight future wars with indigenous weapon systems: Army Chief on lessons from Ukraine crisis

Amid the ongoing Ukraine-Russia crisis, Army Chief General Manoj Mukund Naravane on Tuesday said the lesson for India from the ongoing conflict is that we have to be ready to fight wars of the future with indigenous weapon systems and steps have to be taken in that direction.

Asked about the lessons for India from the Ukraine-Russia crisis, the Army Chief told ANI: "The biggest lesson is that we have to be ready to fight future wars with indigenous weapons and the steps towards Aatmanirbhar Bharat in defence have to be taken more urgently. The wars of future should be fought with own weapon systems."

The Army chief's comments come in the backdrop of the efforts being made by the Indian armed force to ensure the regular supply of spares and systems from both Russia and Ukraine which have been exporting equipment to India for a long time now.

General Naravane further said that the crisis shows that wars can happen at anytime and India has to be prepared for them.

"There are many lessons that can be learned from the ongoing Ukraine-Russia war. The crisis shows that wars can happen at anytime and we have to remain prepared for them. The wars would not just be non-kinetic and would be fought in the physical domain also," he added.

Russian forces launched military operations in Ukraine on February 24, three days after Moscow recognized Ukraine's breakaway regions, Donetsk and Luhansk as independent republics followed by the announcement of a "special military operation" to "demilitarize" and "denazify" Ukraine.

( With inputs from ANI )