AFP :
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi met Ukraine’s leader Volodymyr Zelenksy on a historic visit to Kyiv on Friday, where he is pushing for a solution to end more than two years of war with Russia.
Modi embraced Zelensky — who looked visibly emotional — at the Mariinsky palace in Kyiv, in the first ever visit by an Indian premier to Ukraine.
The Indian leader is casting himself as a possible peacemaker between Moscow and Kyiv.
But his visit comes at a dramatic moment in the two-and-a-half-year war, with a diplomatic settlement appearing more elusive than ever.
Kyiv’s forces are mounting a major incursion into Russia’s Kursk region while Moscow’s army is advancing in eastern Ukraine, claiming to have seized a swathe of towns and villages in recent weeks.
“No problem can be resolved on a battlefield,” Modi said in Poland on Wednesday before heading to Ukraine.
India, he said, supports “dialogue and diplomacy for restoration of peace and stability as soon as possible.” But it is unclear if Modi could be an effective dealmaker.
The 73-year-old has good relations with Russia, and met President Vladimir Putin in Moscow in July.
He was criticized for hugging Putin during that visit, hours after a Russian strike on a Kyiv children’s hospital.
At the time, Zelensky called it a “devastating blow” to peace efforts.
The Ukrainian leader on Friday said he and Modi had together “honoured the memory of children whose lives were taken by Russian aggression.”
“Children of every country deserve to be safe. We must make it possible,” Zelensky said in a post on Telegram.
During his visit to Moscow last month, Modi had told Putin that “war cannot solve problems” and that seeing “innocent children murdered… is pain that is unbearable.”
Ahead of his arrival in Kyiv, Modi said he planned to “share perspectives on peaceful resolution of the ongoing conflict” with Zelensky.
While India has historically warm ties with Russia, it also courts closer security partnerships with Western nations as a bulwark against its regional rival China.
New Delhi has avoided explicit condemnation of Russia’s 2022 invasion and has abstained on UN resolutions that criticize the Kremlin, instead urging both sides to resolve their differences through direct dialogue. Moscow also remains a key supplier of oil and weapons to India.
But Russia’s Ukraine invasion has also had a human cost for India, with several reports of Indian citizens being killed fighting for Russia.
In February, New Delhi said it was pushing the Kremlin to send back some of its citizens.
In the first year of the invasion in 2022, Putin publicly acknowledged that Modi had “concerns” over Moscow’s actions in Ukraine.
Western powers have in recent years pressured New Delhi to distance itself from Russia.
Ukraine has said that one of its aims of launching the surprise Kursk incursion on August 6 was to force Moscow into “fair” negotiations.
While there was no sign of any serious talks to end the war before then, Russia has said the counter-offensive now makes them impossible.