< p>The Indian Prime Minister will visit Ukraine today, where he will meet with President Volodymyr Zelensky, Reuters reported. This is the first visit of an Indian prime minister to Kyiv since Ukraine gained independence from the USSR in 1991, BTA quoted.
The visit comes at an important time in the war in Ukraine, when Ukrainian forces are still in the western part of Russia's Kursk Oblast after their invasion on August 6, and Russian troops are making slow but steady advances in eastern Ukraine, he said. the agency.
The visit, which comes on the heels of Modi's trip to Moscow in July, is significant for Western-backed Kiev, which is trying to strengthen diplomatic ties with the Global South in its efforts to reach a fair deal to end the war.< /p>
„I look forward to the opportunity to share my views on a peaceful solution to the ongoing conflict in Ukraine,”, Modi said before the trip. “As a friend and partner, we hope for a quick return to peace and stability in the region”, he added.
Modi's visit to Moscow last month coincided with heavy Russian bombing of Ukraine, which also hit a children's hospital in Kiev. The attack prompted Modi to use emotional language to indirectly rebuke Putin during their meeting.
However, the trip drew sharp criticism from Zelensky, who said it was a “huge disappointment and a heavy blow to peace efforts to see the leader of the world's most populous democracy embrace the world's bloodiest criminal in Moscow on such a day“.
An adviser to the Ukrainian president, Mykhailo Podoliak, told Reuters that Modi's visit to Kiev was important because Delhi “really has a certain influence” over Moscow.
„It is extremely important for us to effectively build relations with such countries, to explain to them what is the right end of the war – and that it is also in their interest”, he stressed.
India, which has traditionally maintained close economic and defense ties with Moscow, has publicly criticized the deaths of innocent people in the war. But it has also strengthened its economic ties with the Kremlin after Western countries imposed sanctions on Russia and severed trade relations with it after the invasion of Ukraine.