While Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who is on his two-day visit to Russia and appreciated the leadership of Russian President Vladimir Putin hailing Russia as India’s “all-weather friend,” Ukrainian President Vlodomyr Zelenskyy has expressed his anger.
At a time PM Modi is jubilant with the chants of ‘Modi-Modi’ by members of the Indian community in Russia, Zelenskyy called his Russian visit a `blow to peace efforts.
Addressing the Indian diaspora in Russia’s capital city of Moscow, PM Modi said,“On hearing the word Russia, the first word that comes to mind of every Indian is India’s all-weather friend (sukh-dukh ka saathi) and a reliable ally. No matter how low the temperature dips below minus during Russian winters, India-Russia friendship has always remained in ‘plus’, it is full of warmth.”
However, the visit and camaraderie did not impress the Ukrainian President who took to X to lash out at the visit. “It is a huge disappointment and a devastating blow to peace efforts to see the leader of the world’s largest democracy hug the world’s most bloody criminal in Moscow on such a day,” Zelenskyy said in a post on X on Monday, referring to the deadly Russian attacks on a Ukrainian hospital.
Incidentally, this is the first Russian visit of PM Modi after the Russia- Ukraine war. This comes as Indian sources stressed that the country has consistently maintained that dialogue and diplomacy was the way forward to resolve the Ukraine conflict as a solution can’t be found on the battlefield.
This was in response to the US reaction to Modi’s visit. The US said on Monday that it would urge India, as we do any country when it engages with Russia, to make clear that any resolution to the conflict in Ukraine needs to respect the UN charter, Ukraine’s territorial integrity and sovereignty.
Interestingly, Modi’s Russia visit comes at a time when a NATO summit is being held in Washington which is expected to deliberate on the Ukraine war. However, a senior foreign ministry official last week said there was no significance in the timing and Modi’s visit was part of a long-standing calendar of summits between the two countries.