Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi will pay an official visit to Kyiv for the first time since the outbreak of a full-scale war in Ukraine.
This was reported by Wionews, citing sources in Indian diplomatic circles.
The visit is expected to take place in the third week of August. Most likely, on the 23rd.
Earlier, Modi spoke on the phone with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, during which Zelenskyy invited the Indian prime minister to visit Kyiv.
In July, there were also telephone contacts between the foreign ministers of the two countries, Dmytro Kuleba and Subramaniam Jaishankar, as well as the head of the Presidential Office, Andriy Yermak, and the Indian Minister of National Security, Ajit Doval. After the talks, Jaishankar posted on social media platform X that the conversation was about ‘further development of bilateral relations’ between India and Ukraine.
In June, Modi met with Zelenskyy on the sidelines of the G7 summit in Italy. The parties discussed the situation in Ukraine. During the conversation, the Prime Minister said that India would continue to do everything possible to support a peaceful resolution of the Ukrainian conflict. Prior to that, the two leaders met last year on the sidelines of the G7 summit in Japan.
On 8 July, Modi visited Moscow for the first time since the start of Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine. On the same day, the Russian army launched a massive missile attack on civilian targets in Ukraine, including the largest children's hospital in Kyiv, Okhmatdyt. In total, the attack killed more than 40 people, including children.
According to The Moscow Times, Modi told Putin the next day that he felt ‘pain and horror’ at the attack on the children's hospital.
‘Peaceful solutions and negotiations cannot work in the midst of bombs, guns and shells,’ the prime minister said, adding that he called for peace in Ukraine to be achieved through dialogue.
Soon after, it became known that the expanded talks, which were to take place after an informal tête-à-tête meeting between the two heads of state and official talks in a narrow format, were cancelled.
Earlier, Volodymyr Zelenskyy expressed disappointment with Narendra Modi's visit to Moscow on 8 July. The President recalled that on that day, Russia had attacked a children's hospital and other civilian infrastructure in Ukraine, killing dozens of people. Zelenskyy noted that despite these cruel actions by Russia, Modi allowed himself to ‘hug the bloodiest criminal in the world.’