NEW DELHI: Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi will visit Ukraine later this week, the Ministry of External Affairs said on Monday ahead of his first trip to the war-torn country since Russia’s invasion and about a month after he met President Vladimir Putin in Moscow. 

Modi will be the first Indian premier to visit Ukraine since the Eastern European country declared independence in 1991. He is scheduled to leave New Delhi on Aug. 21 for Poland, before visiting Kyiv. 

“This landmark visit of course takes place against the backdrop of the ongoing conflict in Ukraine, which will also form part of discussions. As you are aware, India has consistently advocated for diplomacy and dialogue to reach a negotiated settlement,” Tanmaya Lal, secretary West at the ministry, told a press conference in Delhi. 

“India is willing to provide all possible support and contribution required to help find peaceful solutions to this conflict.” 

New Delhi has abstained from publicly criticizing Russia over the Ukraine war and did not join the slew of international sanctions slapped on it, despite pressure from Western countries, especially the US. 

Since the escalation of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in 2022, Modi has met Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on several occasions, including on the sidelines of the G7 Summit in Italy in June. 

When Modi visited Moscow in early July for the annual India-Russia summit, the trip and his embrace with Putin then were met with criticisms from the international community, including Washington and Kyiv. 

While Modi’s upcoming trip to Ukraine is partly seen as a form of damage control following his trip to Russia, it is also Delhi’s attempt at diplomacy, said Amitabh Singh, an associate professor at the Center for Russian and Central Asian Studies in Jawaharlal Nehru University. 

“This is a significant visit in the sense that the hope of diplomacy is still alive … Going to Ukraine will put some diplomatic pressure both on Ukraine and Russia,” Singh told Arab News. 

“It would be unfair to say that Modi is visiting Ukraine just to offset the criticism he got for visiting Moscow. India always maintains that it has a certain level of strategic autonomy. It’s an effort to show to the international community that we are not only talking to Moscow, and we are also talking to Kyiv.”

Modi is likely trying to show the international community that diplomacy is key to ending the war, Singh added. 

“Diplomacy is the only alternative — that is the message probably Modi is trying to convey to Ukraine also, and Russia too.”

Aditya Ramanathan, a research fellow with the Takshashila Institution in Bengaluru, said the visit is “of considerable significance.” 

He told Arab News: “The unsympathetic will see it as an attempt at damage control that is too little too late. However, seasoned observers of India will understand that the visit is a costly signal from Delhi to demonstrate the independence of its foreign policy.”

Russia’s missile strike on a children’s hospital in Ukraine during Modi’s visit to Moscow “created a terrible impression for India,” Ramanathan added, saying that the timing “added to the impetus” of his visit to Kyiv this week. 

The trip is part of India’s attempt to navigate the complex world of ever-changing geopolitics, while also maintaining relations with old partners. 

“Indian and Russian interests have been diverging and Delhi is keenly aware that Russia’s global significance is likely to decline,” he said. 

India’s ties with Russia span over seven decades, and Moscow is its biggest crude oil supplier and the main source of its military hardware. 

But in the last two decades, India’s partnership with the West has been growing, and it is a member of the Quad, the four-state strategic security dialogue, comprising also the US, Japan and Australia, that was established to counter the increased regional economic and military influence of China. 

“While India is not going to abandon one of its closest partners just yet, there’s no harm in parlaying with Russia’s adversaries,” Ramanathan said. “If Moscow can court Islamabad and Beijing, Delhi can court Kyiv and Washington.”