KYIV: India’s Narendra Modi arrived in wartime Kyiv on Friday to hold talks with President Volodymyr Zelensky, the first trip by an Indian prime minister to Ukraine since Kyiv gained independence from the Soviet Union in 1991.
The visit comes at a volatile juncture in the war in Ukraine, with Ukrainian forces still in Russia’s western Kursk region following their incursion on Aug. 6 and Russian troops grinding out slow but steady advances in Ukraine’s east.
The visit, which follows a trip by Modi to Moscow in July, is important for Western-backed Kyiv, which has been trying to nurture diplomatic relations in the Global South in its efforts to secure a fair settlement to end the war.
“Reached Kyiv earlier this morning. The Indian community accorded a very warm welcome,” Modi wrote on X. The Ukrainian railways company showed footage of him stepping off a train carriage and being received by Ukrainian officials.
In the run-up to the trip, he said he was looking forward to sharing “perspectives on peaceful resolution of the ongoing Ukraine conflict.”
Modi’s visit to Moscow last month coincided with a heavy Russian missile strike on Ukraine that hit a children’s hospital. The attack prompted Modi to use emotive language to deliver an implicit rebuke to Putin at their summit.
But the trip elicited fierce criticism from Zelensky 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.”
Mykhailo Podolyak, an adviser in the Ukrainian president’s office, told Reuters Modi’s visit to Kyiv was significant because New Delhi “really has a certain influence” over Moscow.
“It’s extremely important for us to effectively build relations with such countries, to explain to them what the correct end to the war is — and that it is also in their interests,” he said.
India, which has traditionally had close economic and defense ties with Moscow, has publicly criticized the deaths of innocent people in the war.
But it has also strengthened its economic ties with Moscow after Western nations imposed sanctions on Russia and cut trade relations with it over the invasion.
Indian refiners which rarely bought Russian oil in the past have emerged as Moscow’s top clients for sea-borne oil since Russia poured troops into Ukraine in February 2022. Russian oil accounts for over two-fifths of India’s oil imports.
PEACE VISION
Ukraine has said it hopes to bring together a second international summit later this year to advance its vision of peace and involve representatives from Russia.
The first summit in Switzerland that pointedly excluded Russia in June attracted scores of delegations, including one from India, but not from China, the world’s second largest economy.
“Lasting peace can only be achieved through options that are acceptable to both parties. And it can only be a negotiated settlement,” Tanmaya Lal, Secretary (West) in the Indian foreign ministry, told reporters.
“This is an important visit that is expected to catalyze our ties in a whole range of sectors,” Lal said, listing economic and business links, agriculture, infrastructure, health and education, pharmaceuticals, defense and culture.
Volodymyr Fesenko, a Kyiv-based political analyst, said he expected no breakthrough proposals to be made to end the war during the trip by Modi, who visited Poland on Thursday.
For there to be an attempt to negotiate, the military situation has to stabilize and the presidential election must be held in the United States, a close ally of Ukraine, he said.
He said the visit was important for India to demonstrate it was “not on Russia’s side” and that Kyiv wanted to normalize relations after Modi’s Moscow trip.
Indian PM Modi arrives in Kyiv for talks with Ukraine’s Zelensky
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Indian PM Modi arrives in Kyiv for talks with Ukraine’s Zelensky
- The visit comes at a volatile juncture in the war in Ukraine, with Ukrainian forces still in Russia’s western Kursk region following their incursion on Aug. 6
- The visit, which follows a trip by Modi to Moscow in July, is important for Kyiv, which has been trying to nurture diplomatic relations in the Global South
Belarus frees protest leader Kolesnikova, Nobel winner Bialiatski
- The charismatic Kolesnikova was the star of the 2020 movement that presented the most serious challenge to Lukashenko in his 30-year rule
- Bialiatski — a 63-year-old veteran rights defender and 2022 Nobel Peace Prize winner — is considered by Lukashenko to be a personal enemy
VILNIUS: Belarusian street protest leader Maria Kolesnikova and Nobel Prize winner Ales Bialiatski walked free on Saturday with 121 other political prisoners released in an unprecedented US-brokered deal.
Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko has locked up thousands of his opponents, critics and protesters since the 2020 election, which rights groups said was rigged and which triggered weeks of protests that almost toppled him.
The charismatic Kolesnikova was the star of the 2020 movement that presented the most serious challenge to Lukashenko in his 30-year rule.
She famously ripped up her passport as the KGB tried to deport her from the country.
Bialiatski — a 63-year-old veteran rights defender and 2022 Nobel Peace Prize winner — is considered by Lukashenko to be a personal enemy. He has documented rights abuses in the country, a close ally of Moscow, for decades.
Bialiatski stressed he would carry on fighting for civil rights and freedom for political prisoners after his surprise release, which he called a “huge emotional shock.”
“Our fight continues, and the Nobel Prize was, I think, a certain acknowledgement of our activity, our aspirations that have not yet come to fruition,” he told media in an interview from Vilnius.
“Therefore the fight continues,” he added.
He was awarded the prize in 2022 while already in jail.
After being taken out of prison, he said he was put on a bus and blindfolded until they reached the border with Lithuania.
His wife, Natalia Pinchuk, told AFP that her first words to him on his release were: “I love you.”
- ‘All be free’ -
Most of those freed, including Kolesnikova, were unexpectedly taken to Ukraine, surprising their allies who had been waiting for all of them in Lithuania.
She called for all political prisoners to be released.
“I’m thinking of those who are not yet free, and I’m very much looking forward to the moment when we can all embrace, when we can all see one another, and when we will all be free,” she said in a video interview with a Ukrainian government agency.
Hailing Bialiatski’s release, the Nobel Committee told AFP there were still more than 1,200 political prisoners inside the country.
“Their continued detention starkly illustrates the ongoing, systemic repression in the country,” said chairman Jorgen Watne Frydnes.
EU chief Ursula von der Leyen said their release should “strengthen our resolve... to keep fighting for all remaining prisoners behind bars in Belarus because they had the courage to speak truth to power.”
Jailed opponents of Lukashenko are often held incommunicado in a prison system notorious for its secrecy and harsh treatment.
There had been fears for the health of both Bialiatski and Kolesnikova while they were behind bars, though in interviews Saturday they both said they felt okay.
The deal was brokered by the United States, which has pushed for prisoners to be freed and offered some sanctions relief in return.
- Potash relief -
An envoy of US President Donald Trump, John Coale, was in Minsk this week for talks with Lukashenko.
He told reporters from state media that Washington would remove sanctions on the country’s potash industry, without providing specific details.
A US official separately told AFP that one American citizen was among the 123 released.
Minsk also freed Viktor Babariko, an ex-banker who tried to run against Lukashenko in the 2020 presidential election but was jailed instead.
Kolesnikova was part of a trio of women, including Svetlana Tikhanovskaya who stood against Lukashenko and now leads the opposition in exile, who headed the 2020 street protests.
She was serving an 11-year sentence in a prison colony.
In 2020, security services had put a sack over her head and drove her to the Ukrainian border. But she ripped up her passport, foiling the deportation plan, and was placed under arrest.
Former prisoners from the Gomel prison where she was held have told AFP she was barred from talking to other political prisoners and regularly thrown into harsh punishment cells.
An image of Kolesnikova making a heart shape with her hands became a symbol of anti-Lukashenko protests.
Bialiatski founded Viasna in the 1990s, two years after Lukashenko became president.
