Modi urges Zelensky to hold talks with Russia to end war

Narendra Modi arrived in Kyiv on a self-declared peace mission and urged President Zelensky to sit down for talks with Russia to end the war.
In the first visit by an Indian prime minister in modern Ukrainian history, Modi said he had come armed with a message of peace and called for talks between Kyiv and Moscow.
“The road to resolution can only be found through dialogue and diplomacy. And we should move in that direction without wasting any time. Both sides should sit together to find a way out of this crisis,” Modi said on Friday.
“I want to assure you that India is ready to play an active role in any efforts towards peace. If I can play any role in this personally, I will do that I want to assure you as a friend,” he said.
The remarks were made during joint statements, in which both leaders hailed the visit as “historic”.
Modi spoke second and Zelensky did not have an opportunity to respond to the call for dialogue.
The Ukrainian leader had said in his remarks that “the matter of ending the war and a just peace are the priority for Ukraine”.
Meanwhile, President Biden spoke with Zelensky by phone on Friday and announced a new round of military aid for Kyiv, the White House said.The call between the two leaders came ahead of Ukraine’s independence day.
“I am proud we will announce a new package of military aid for Ukraine today,” Biden said in a statement, without specifying the dollar value of the assistance.
Zelensky said that he welcomed the additional military aid from Washington, which he said was needed “urgently”.
“I welcomed the new US military aid package and emphasised that Ukraine urgently requires the delivery of weapons from the announced packages, particularly additional air defence systems, to reliably protect our cities, communities, and critical infrastructure,” Zelensky said in a post on X.
Modi’s visit to Moscow last month, where he hugged President Putin, was strongly criticised by Kyiv. On the same day, Russian missiles struck Ukraine’s largest children’s hospital during the worst missile barrage on the country’s cities in months.
Zelensky called it “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”. But he nonetheless stuck by his invitation for Modi to visit Kyiv. The two notably hugged.
Donald Tusk, the prime minister of Poland, said Modi had offered his services as a mediator to the conflict and “reaffirmed his willingness to commit himself personally to a peaceful, just, quick end to the war.” Such a role would be an unlikely career evolution for a man famous for his bellicose rhetoric towards neighbouring Pakistan and who won his second term in 2019 largely on the back of a successful military operation against Kashmir-based militants.
Furthermore Modi comes to Kyiv at a time where peace looks more distant than ever. Moscow vowed that negotiations were firmly off the table since Ukrainian forces launched their audacious invasion of Russian territory in Kursk. On Thursday Zelensky visited Sumy, noting that the shelling and bombardment of civilian areas inside Ukraine had decreased since his forces crossed the border to Russia, justifying his decision to seek a buffer zone there.
In Moscow, Putin angrily accused Kyiv of targeting Kursk’s nuclear power station, some 40 miles from the battlezone, despite being told by officials moments earlier that it was safe. On Wednesday Ukraine launched its largest ever drone attack on Russia, sending at least eleven drones to Moscow and dozens more to other military sites across the west of the country.
Ukraine’s shock assault on Kursk has upended the narrative of the war, humiliated Putin and exposed Russia’s military command as unprepared. But the incursion is not just a glaring embarrassment. Moscow is well aware that its captured territory constitutes a powerful bargaining chip for Kyiv as it seeks the return of its Russian occupied territories from a position of relative weakness, as Russia rapidly advances in Donetsk towards the city of Pokrovsk. And though he has endeavoured not to take sides, when it comes to Russia Modi is hardly a neutral player.
India’s ties with Russia go back decades and Modi’s India has provided Moscow with an economic lifeline since it was hit with sanctions following the 2022 invasion. India has ramped up its purchase of Russian crude oil, a good amount of which it refines then re-exports to Europe, effectively acting as a sanctions-buster.
Modi’s “multi-aligned” foreign policy sees Russia as an essential partner in the coming years to prevent India becoming too dependent on the West and help shift the global order in favour of the developing world. Modi also sees India as a counterbalance against China in their respective relationships with Russia: should he abandon Moscow, its relationship with Beijing would only deepen.
India has seen few consequences internationally, given its unique geopolitical position. India’s size and value as a counterweight to China in Asia has made the West unusually tolerant of its sometimes double-sided diplomacy. Its importance as a US military partner has only grown as China expands its presence from the Pacific to the Indian Ocean.
The pragmatic Zelensky knows all of this, and that he has little prospect of pressuring Modi into condemning the invasion by Russia, which Modi hailed as an “all-weather friend” and “trusted ally” during his visit to Moscow. After July’s devastating strike on the children’s hospital, Modi told Putin on camera that the death of innocent children was “painful” and “terrifying.”
He pointedly did not lay blame for the carnage: Moscow had, unconvincingly, blamed the bloodshed on a misfired Ukrainian missile. In two-and-half years, Zelensky has witnessed the powerful effect that seeing the reality of the invasion can have on waverers. A visit to the bomb site is exactly the kind of field trip he may well be planning for his Indian visitor.