By Tom Balmforth and Pavel Polityuk
KYIV (Reuters) – India’s Narendra Modi arrived in wartime Kyiv on Friday to carry talks with President Volodymyr Zelenskiy, the primary journey by an Indian prime minister to Ukraine since Kyiv gained independence from the Soviet Union in 1991.
The go to comes at a unstable juncture within the battle in Ukraine, with Ukrainian forces nonetheless in Russia’s western Kursk area following their incursion on Aug. 6 and Russian troops grinding out gradual however regular advances in Ukraine’s east.
The go to, which follows a visit by Modi to Moscow in July, is necessary for Western-backed Kyiv, which has been attempting to nurture diplomatic relations within the International South in its efforts to safe a good settlement to finish the battle.
“Reached Kyiv earlier this morning. The Indian community accorded a very warm welcome,” Modi wrote on X. The Ukrainian railways firm confirmed footage of him stepping off a practice carriage and being obtained by Ukrainian officers.
Within the run-up to the journey he mentioned he was wanting ahead to sharing “perspectives on peaceful resolution of the ongoing Ukraine conflict”.
Modi’s go to to Moscow final month coincided with a heavy Russian missile strike on Ukraine that hit a kids’s hospital. The assault prompted Modi to make use of emotive language to ship an implicit rebuke to Putin at their summit.
However the journey elicited fierce criticism from Zelenskiy who mentioned 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 within the Ukrainian president’s workplace, advised Reuters Modi’s go to to Kyiv was important as a result of 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 mentioned.
India, which has historically had shut financial and defence ties with Moscow, has publicly criticised the deaths of harmless folks within the battle.
But it surely has additionally strengthened its financial ties with Moscow after Western nations imposed sanctions on Russia and reduce commerce relations with it over the invasion.
Indian refiners which not often purchased Russian oil previously have emerged as Moscow’s high shoppers for sea-borne oil since Russia poured troops into Ukraine in February 2022. Russian oil accounts for over two-fifths of India’s oil imports.
PEACE VISION
Ukraine has mentioned it hopes to carry collectively a second worldwide summit later this yr to advance its imaginative and prescient of peace and contain representatives from Russia.
The primary summit in Switzerland that pointedly excluded Russia in June attracted scores of delegations, together with one from India, however not from China, the world’s second largest economic system.
“Lasting peace can only be achieved through options that are acceptable to both parties. And it can only be a negotiated settlement,” Tanmaya Lal, Secretary (West) within the Indian overseas ministry, advised reporters.
“This is an important visit that is expected to catalyze our ties in a whole range of sectors,” Lal mentioned, itemizing financial and enterprise hyperlinks, agriculture, infrastructure, well being and schooling, prescription drugs, defence and tradition.
Volodymyr Fesenko, a Kyiv-based political analyst, mentioned he anticipated no breakthrough proposals to be made to finish the battle through the journey by Modi, who visited Poland on Thursday.
For there to be an try to barter, the navy scenario has to stabilise and the presidential election should be held in the USA, a detailed ally of Ukraine, he mentioned.
He mentioned the go to was necessary for India to display it was “not on Russia’s side” and that Kyiv needed to normalise relations after Modi’s Moscow journey.