Yesterday, we brought you news that Ukraine’s foreign minister Dmytro Kuleba was on a diplomatic visit to New Delhi.
India, which has a long-standing trading relationship with Moscow, has remained neutral in the Russia-Ukraine conflict.
While Prime Minister Narendra Modi has urged the need for peace talks, India has refused to condemn Russia’s February 2022 invasion, and has significantly increased its purchases of Russian oil since.
Mr Kuleba arrived in New Delhi yesterday to advance Kyiv’s vision of the path to peace – which for Ukraine starts with the return of its territory – as well as to strengthen ties with India.
According to the Financial Times, Mr Kuleba urged India to stand by Kyiv, saying the nation’s close ties with Russia were based on an evaporating Soviet legacy.
He also reportedly suggested that New Delhi had much to gain from expanding trade and technology ties with Ukraine and offered Indian companies a role in postwar reconstruction.
“We are interested in importing some of the heavy machinery items that India is producing,” he said, according to the FT.
Ukraine hopes to hold a summit of world leaders without Russian participation in the coming months to advance its blueprint for peace, which calls among other things for the withdrawal of Russian troops from its territory.
Russia has dismissed the Ukrainian diplomatic initiative as a non-starter.
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