Kyiv wants India to join its vision for “a just peace,” aimed at concentrating a global effort around pushing the Kremlin to end its full-scale invasion, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said in a statement Friday.
But India — currently one of the largest trade partners of Russia, a major purchaser of Russian oil, as well as provider of about 16 humanitarian aid packages to Ukraine — keeps stating it remains neutral and calls for peace, but not the “just peace” that Kyiv wants.
“A peaceful solution to the conflict is best for humanity,” Modi said Friday. In a joint statement published later, the leaders said India and Ukraine both support upholding principles of international law, including the U.N. Charter, such as respect for territorial integrity and sovereignty of states.
While in Kyiv, Modi signed several agreements, deepening cooperation with Ukraine in pharmaceutical, agrarian, humanitarian and cultural areas. He also met with Indian diaspora representatives, visited the Mahatma Gandhi monument, met with Ukrainian diplomatic officials and hugged Zelenskyy, just like he hugged Russian President Vladimir Putin in Moscow a month ago.
That first hug dealt a blow to Ukraine’s diplomatic relations with India, as Modi visited Moscow and embraced Putin the day Russian forces bombed a children’s hospital in Kyiv. Although Modi called on Putin to stop the war and said a solution could not be found on the battlefield, Zelenskyy was disappointed by Modi’s coziness with the Russian leader.
“It is 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,” Zelenskyy wrote, referring to the deadly Russian attacks last month.