Kyiv: India's Narendra Modi urged President Volodymyr Zelenskiy on Friday to sit down for talks with Russia to end the war in Ukraine and offered to act as a friend to help bring peace as the two leaders met in wartime Kyiv.
The first visit by an Indian prime minister in modern Ukrainian history comes at a volatile juncture in the war launched by Russia in Feb. 2022, with Moscow making slow gains in eastern Ukraine as Kyiv presses a cross-border incursion.
Modi, whose visit to Moscow last month was criticised by Kyiv, said he had come to Ukraine with a message of peace and called for dialogue between Russia and Ukraine at the earliest opportunity.
"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. "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 Zelenskiy did not have an opportunity to respond to the call for dialogue. But the Ukrainian leader said in his remarks that "the matter of ending the war and a just peace are the priority for Ukraine".
Ukraine has repeatedly said it wants the war to end but on Kyiv's terms, not Russia's. Ukraine has been pushing to hold a second international summit later this year to advance its vision of peace and involve representatives from Russia.
The first summit, held in Switzerland in June pointedly excluded Russia, while attracting scores of delegations, including one from India, but not from China, the world's second-largest economy.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said on Monday that talks were out of the question after Ukraine launched its incursion into western Russia's Kursk region.
Ukraine launched a lightning offensive into the Kursk region on August 6, claiming the capture of almost 100 settlements in what military analysts see as an attempt to divert Russian troops from eastern Ukraine.
Moscow's forces have been slowly inching forward, threatening the transport hub of Pokrovsk and other Ukrainian positions in eastern Ukraine.
