PM Narendra Modi may visit Kyiv next month in another balancing act on the Russia-Ukraine conflict, hoping it will calm frayed nerves in Washington and major European capitals, which have been dismayed by the timing of his visit to Moscow earlier this month.
According to diplomatic sources, both sides are in talks to finalise a date for the visit in the last week of Aug.
If it happens, it will be the first visit by an Indian PM to Ukraine. It will come in the middle of some serious strife, including the “tough conversations” that US says it is having with India over Modi’s embrace of Russian President Vladimir Putin that coincided with the Nato summit in Washington, and Moscow’s reported bombing of a children’s hospital in Kyiv. Modi’s choice of Russia for his first bilateral visit since the inauguration of his third term also fuelled the outrage.
Govt sources said a Ukraine visit had been in the works for a while after President Volodymyr Zelensky invited the PM. Organising the visit will also be a logistical challenge, as a source said. Like others who have visited Ukraine, Modi will probably have to undertake an overnight train journey from Poland to Kyiv. A few of the dates under discussion are close to Aug 24, Ukraine’s national day.
President Zelensky had termed PM Modi’s embrace of Putin as a huge disappointment and a devastating blow to peace efforts.
India did express its displeasure to Ukraine over the remarks but without publicly saying so.
Foreign minister S Jaishankar also spoke to his Ukrainian counterpart Dmytro Kuleba after Modi returned from Russia.
Following the remarks by Zelensky, and with US raising concerns even in the middle of the Russia visit, Modi had specifically raised the issue of violence against children with Putin the next morning.
