By Ashish Singh
Indian PM Modi visited Ukraine soon after finishing his Poland visit. While many foreign and domestic commentators have criticised India for standing with Russia (including Modi’s last visit to Moscow about a month ago), the Indian PM did not forget to hug Zelensky a few times. There may be a new theory named “the hug diplomacy” in the coming times. This visit of the Indian PM is also called historic as India and Ukraine are now willing to be strategic partners. Many important issues were brought up in Modi’s short visit and his meeting with Zelensky. Given this background, we ought to analyse how the Ukrainian media saw the Indian PM’s visit to Kyiv/Kiev.
Oksana Muzychenko writes for TSN that even though India stays away from the ongoing war between Russia and Ukraine, it is not an indifferent observer. Quoting Modi, she reiterates that India supports diplomatic dialogue between the two countries. She adds further that India looks at the war from a humanitarian angle as well and is willing to help Ukraine in this aspect. Modi’s speech advocating peace and maintaining territorial integrity has also been highlighted.
Radio Svoboda’s analysis consists of the points made out in the joint statement especially “on the need for a closer bilateral dialogue” on the ongoing crisis between Ukraine and Russia. While the report covers Bloomberg’s analysis of this visit, it also adds Zelensky’s disappointment with Modi’s recent visit to Russia in July, on which Zelensky said “it is a huge disappointment and a devastating blow to peace efforts to see the leader of the world’s largest democracy embracing the bloodiest criminal in the world in Moscow on such a day”.
The coverage by Interfax-Ukraine focuses on both countries’ call for a comprehensive reform of the UN Security Council. Ukraine has shown its support for India’s permanent membership in the United Nations Security Council, in response, India hopes for Ukraine to join the International Solar Alliance.
According to UATV, Ukraine and India agreed on four cooperation documents. It is about the medical, agricultural, humanitarian, and cultural spheres. Zelensky announced this at a meeting with Modi in Kyiv. According to Zelensky, a joint statement on building a strategic partnership between the countries, trade, and military-technical cooperation has also been prepared, reports UATV.
Ukrinform writes that India emphasises a peaceful settlement of the military conflict through dialogue and diplomacy. The Ukrainian side emphasises that the Joint Communiqué on the foundations of peace, adopted at the Peace Summit, can serve as a basis for further efforts to establish a just peace.
The RBC report cites the statement of the head of the Office of the President of Ukraine, Andriy Yermak, in which he has said that the Indian PM visited Ukraine because Zelensky was quite upset with his visit to Russia (when the same day a hospital was bombed) and Zelensky posted it on the social media platform X.
While the NV report covers nearly everything mentioned above, it also highlights the Indian PM’s message of peace and urge for dialogue and diplomacy between the two countries. This report calls the Russian President Putin a dictator as well.
Andriy Smirnov, the managing editor of NV, not only writes about the Indian PM’s visit to Ukraine but also gives a detailed analysis of what’s what of the ongoing war between the armed forces of Ukraine and Russia. This analysis goes beyond reading between the lines of the joint statement.
New Format’s reports seem a mere description of this visit, which one should not criticise because everyone is still trying to grasp the undertone here, i.e. whether it was a historic visit towards achieving peace, or India is trying to balance between Washington and Moscow, with China staring from not far away.
(Ashish Singh is a social and political science)
