I will do whatever it takes to stop the war in Ukraine: PM Modi tells Zelensky at G7 summit

Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky met India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi on the sidelines of the G7 Hiroshima summit in Japan on Saturday, May 20. With India’s foreign minister Dr S Jaishankar and National Security Adviser Ajit Doval present by his side, this is the first time when PM Modi met Zelensky since Russia launched its military offensive against Ukraine in February 2022.

“India, and I, personally would do whatever it takes to stop the war in Ukraine,” India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi told Zelensky in Hiroshima.

Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky said he invited India to join Ukraine’s peace formula during his talks with Prime Minister Narendra Modi. “I briefed the interlocutor in detail on the Ukrainian Peace Formula initiative and invited India to join its implementation. I spoke about Ukraine’s needs in humanitarian demining and mobile hospitals. I thank India for supporting our country’s territorial integrity and sovereignty, in particular, at the platforms of international organizations, and for providing humanitarian aid to Ukraine,” Zelensky wrote on Twitter.

Shortly after the bilateral meet, India’s PM Modi also took to Twitter and stated that he conveyed India’s support for “dialogue and diplomacy to find a way forward”. “We will continue extending humanitarian assistance to the people of Ukraine,” Modi said.

Earlier during the bilateral meeting, Modi told Zelensky that he understands the pain of war currently faced by the Ukrainian people through the experiences of Indian students rescued from Ukraine at the onset of war last year.

“Since the last year and half, we are constantly in touch, but this is the first time we are meeting since Glasgow,” Modi said while referring to the last bilateral meeting between the two leaders at UN Climate Change Conference in UK in 2021. 

“The war in Ukraine is a major issue for the world at large. It is affecting the world in multiple ways. But for me, this is not a political or economy-related issue. It is a humanitarian issue for me,” Modi said. 

“You understand the pain of war better than us. But last year, when our children came back from Ukraine and the way they described the situation there, I was able to better understand the pain you and people of Ukraine are currently going through,” Modi told Zelensky.

While India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi has pointed out country’s principled opposition to conflicts anywhere in the world, and even to Russian President Vladimir Putin by stating ‘Today’s era is not the era of war‘, New Delhi has refrained from directly criticising Russian actions at multilateral forums. 

India is among the nations with whom Russia shares “special and privileged strategic partnership”. The two countries share deep ties since India’s freedom from the British in 1947.

As of April 2023, roughly 70 per cent of the arsenal of the Indian armed forces is of Russian origin.

Shortly after the bilateral talks between the two leaders, India’s foreign secretary Harsh Vardhan Shringla told reporters that Zelensky appreciated India’s support to Kyiv during the Covid crisis.

“The President recalled how he himself had taken Covishield vaccine manufactured by Serum Institute of India,” Shringla said.

“President Zelensky expressed appreciation for India’s support not only for vaccines but also for affordable and quality pharmaceuticals. He also suggested that India and Ukraine should collaborate in joint manufacture and production of a wide range medicines and other health equipment,” Shringla added.

As many as 354,000 Russian and Ukrainian soldiers have been killed or injured in the Ukraine war, according to a trove of purported US intelligence documents posted online in April 2023.

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