New Delhi: Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Moscow didn’t amuse Volodymyr Zelensky.
In fact, Ukraine’s President expressed “huge disappointment”, especially as it came on a day when Russia launched a missile attack on a children’s hospital in Kyiv. Zelensky called the bilateral meeting between the Indian and Russian leaders as a “devastating blow” to peace efforts.
“In Ukraine today, 37 people were killed, three of whom were children, and 170 were injured, including 13 children, as a result of Russia’s brutal missile strike. A Russian missile struck the largest children’s hospital in Ukraine, targeting young cancer patients. Many were buried under the rubble. 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,” Zelensky posted on social media platform X on Tuesday.
Modi told Putin that the death of innocent children was painful and terrifying, referring to the Russian strike on Ukraine’s biggest children’s hospital.
“Whether it is war, conflict or a terrorist attack, any person who believes in humanity is pained when there is loss of lives. But even in that, when innocent children are killed, the heart bleeds and that pain is very terrifying,” said Modi who is in Austria after winding his two-day state visit to Moscow.
Ukraine claimed it has recovered fragments of a Russian Kh-101 cruise missile from the children’s hospital which was bombarded on Monday during a wave of Russian attacks that killed at least 41 people across the country.
Modi reiterated to Putin that no solution could be found on the battlefield.
Ukraine has been under Russian siege since February 2022.
