India’s Modi meets Ukrainian President Zelenskyy in Kyiv

India’s Narendra Modi has been welcomed to Ukraine’s capital Kyiv by President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in the first visit to the country by an Indian prime minister since it gained independence from the Soviet Union in 1991.

Zelenskyy embraced Modi before they started talks on Friday at the Marinskyi presidential palace, and said the Indian leader’s visit to Ukraine was “very friendly” and “historic”.

The Indian prime minister is expected to discuss economic ties and cooperation in defence, science and technology, while also broaching the contentious subject of a settlement to end the war with Russia.

The meeting kicked off with both leaders visiting a memorial commemorating hundreds of Ukrainian children who have been killed during more than two years of war.

The Ukrainian president said on X that he and Modi had honoured “the memory of the children whose lives were taken by Russian aggression”.

Modi, who told Zelenskyy that the killing of children in conflict was not acceptable, said he had come to Ukraine with a message of peace.

“We have stayed away from the war with great conviction. This does not mean that we were indifferent,” he told reporters, while seated alongside Zelenskyy.

“We were not neutral from day one, we have taken a side, and we stand firmly for peace,” he said.

Modi also pledged his country would provide humanitarian support for Ukraine’s conflict with Russia. “India will always stand with you and will go above and beyond to support you,” he said.

He stated his respect for territorial integrity and sovereignty, while reiterating India’s position, set out ahead of his visit, that the conflict can be resolved only through dialogue and diplomacy.

India is the world’s largest buyer of Russian arms, and has sought to capitalise on cheaper Russian oil as the United States and European countries seek to limit the Russian energy sector’s access to the global marketplace via sanctions.

Modi’s meeting with Zelenskyy comes a month and a half after he was in Moscow for talks with Putin, a visit that coincided with Russian missile attacks on Ukraine that hit a children’s hospital, which the Indian leader implicitly criticised during the bilateral summit.

Modi and Putin agreed to increase bilateral trade to $100bn by 2030, increasing investments, eliminating nontariff trade barriers and using national currencies to circumvent sanctions.

The meeting elicited fierce criticism from Zelenskyy, who said it was 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”.