India’s Narendra Modi arrived in wartorn Ukraine on Friday for talks with president Volodymyr Zelensky.
“Reached Kyiv earlier this morning,” tweeted the Indian prime minister, as he shared pictures of a reception with members of the Indian diaspora in Ukraine. “The Indian community accorded a very warm welcome,” he said.
Mr Modi’s visit comes one month after he met with Vladimir Putin in Moscow. It is also the first trip by any Indian prime minister to Ukraine since Kyiv gained independence from the Soviet Union in 1991.
The visit comes at a volatile juncture in the war as Ukrainian forces are still occupying large swathes of Russia’s western Kursk region following an incursion that began on 6 August, while Russian troops are grinding out slow but steady advances in Ukraine’s east.
India and Ukraine have some important links in terms of migration and trade in military spare parts, but the trip is largely being seen in the context of India’s ongoing balancing act when it comes to the Ukraine war. New Delhi has condemned the suffering taking place in the conflict without directly criticising Putin’s invasion, and has profited enormously from buying large volumes of discounted Russian oil.
“I look forward to the opportunity to … share perspectives on peaceful resolution of the ongoing Ukraine conflict,” Mr Modi had said before the trip. “As a friend and partner, we hope for an early return of peace and stability in the region.”
Mr Modi‘s visit to Moscow last month coincided with a heavy Russian missile strike on Ukraine that hit a children’s hospital.
It elicited strong criticism from Mr Zelensky, who said it was a “huge disappointment and a devastating blow to peace efforts to see the leader of the world’s largest democracy hug the world’s most bloody criminal in Moscow on such a day”.
Mykhailo Podolyak, an adviser in the Ukrainian president’s office, told Reuters that Mr Modi‘s visit to Kyiv was significant because New Delhi “really has a certain influence” over Moscow.
“It’s extremely important for us to effectively build relations with such countries, to explain to them what the correct end to the war is – and that it is also in their interests,” he said.