New Delhi: Narendra Modi’s best efforts to convince Volodymyr Zelensky about India’s role and committed intentions in the Russia-Ukraine war seems to have fallen on deaf ears.
After holding wide-ranging talks with the Prime Minister Modi in Kyiv on Friday, the Ukrainian President urged India to lend its support to Ukraine in the war with Russia and refrain from taking a neutral or balancing stance in the crisis.
“Want India on our side to end the war and not do a balancing act. I want to visit India soon and reach out to Indian people. India has a big role to play in ending our war with Russia. India is an important country in the world and can have a big role in peace making,” Zelensky told India Today TV.
Modi stressed that India has not been ‘neutral’, but that didn’t impress Zelensky.
Speaking to ANI, Zelensky said that India will play its role in the war which was started by one man, Vladimir Putin.
“India will play its role. I think that India has begun to recognise that this is not just conflict, this is a real war of one man and his name is Putin against the whole country whose name is Ukraine. You are a big country. You have a big influence, and you can stop Putin and halt his economy, and put him really in his place,” he said.
Zelensky hailed his meeting with Modi.
“We had a very good meeting, in fact a historical one. It was not about me or PM Modi, but about both the nation and its people. I am very thankful to PM Modi for coming to Ukraine.”
In a social media post, Zelensky wrote: “Today, history was made. The Prime Minister of India @narendramodi made his first visit to Ukraine since our country’s independence, on the eve of our Independence Day.”
Within a few hours, Zelensky’s post has crossed 1 million likes, surpassing his most popular Instagram post which garnered 780,000 likes.
