"Conflict must end"

India’s Modi embraced Putin and Zelenskyi

From left: India's Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Selenskyj(Bild: AP/Ukrainian Presidential Press Office)

India's Prime Minister Narendra Modi has offered his help to Ukraine to end the war (see video above). To emphasize a cordial relationship, he also hugged Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyi several times. 

A few weeks earlier, he had also embraced Russia's President Vladimir Putin. This highly symbolic gesture was met with criticism both in Ukraine and in the West. "President Zelensky knows that we mean well with Ukraine," Indian Foreign Minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar has now reiterated. "We believe that this conflict must end." Both sides would have to work on a solution.

Here you can see Narendra Modi's contribution on X.

Modi did not say how he believes the war should be ended during his visit to Ukraine. The 73-year-old met with Selenskyj at a memorial site for the dead children of Ukraine. He laid down a doll in a former chapel. "Conflicts are particularly destructive for children," Modi wrote on the X platform. He also thought of the families of the dead and wished them strength in their grief.

Modi and Selenskyj(Bild: AP/Ukrainian Presidential Press Office)

(Bild: AP/Ukrainian Presidential Press Service)

Modi with the Ukrainian government(Bild: AP/Ukrainian Presidential Press Office)

Foreign Minister: "Cultural difference"
In July, Modi visited Moscow, just like Ukraine for the first time since the beginning of the war. At the time, Zelensky criticized the demonstrative closeness to Putin. "There is a cultural difference that people in the West may not understand. In our part of the world, people tend to hug each other when they meet people," India's foreign minister replied.

India's government has never condemned the war in Ukraine, only criticizing nuclear threats from Moscow in early 2022. The country does not support Western sanctions against Russia, is dependent on it for military equipment and buys cheap oil. "India firmly believes that peace will always prevail," emphasized Modi.