India must stand with international law and UN charter: Ukraine Minister

The Hindu

8 hours ago

Ukraine is ready for direct summit-level talks with Russia, said a senior Minister here, adding that the role of India and other countries should be to facilitate talks, rather than seek to mediate at this point.
In an interview to The Hinduahead of the G-7 summit outreach sessions in Kananaskis, Canada, on June 17, where Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy are both special invitees, Ukraine's First Deputy Foreign Minister Sergiy Kyslytsya said that he couldn't confirm if the two leaders would hold bilateral talks, but hoped that India would choose to support 'international law and the UN charter', when it comes to the Russia-Ukraine conflict.
'India is the largest democracy on the world's political map... And if India wants to continue to build up its image as a democratic state, then India has only one choice, of being on the side of the international law and UN Charter,' Mr. Kyslytsya said when asked about Ukraine's expectations from India. Asked about an Indian role in mediating the conflict given its ties with both countries, Mr. Kyslytsya said that in the present scenario, Ukraine would welcome any country that facilitates talks like the Istanbul process where two rounds of Russia-Ukraine talks have been held.
'India has a history of centuries and traditions in the area of peaceful resolutions. So it's for India to say if it is ready and willing to play a role,' he said, expressing gratitude for the humanitarian assistance provided by India to Ukraine thus far. He also said that India-Ukraine trade could be built in a number of areas from food to high-tech advanced weaponry, especially drone technology that has been enhanced since the Russian invasion in 2022.
No change in stance
Despite requests from Ukraine during Mr. Modi's visit to Kyiv in August last year, and another Modi-Zelenskyy meeting in September, New Delhi has not thus far changed its position on the Russia-Ukraine war, or calls to stop importing Russian oil under Western sanctions. In February, India abstained from another resolution at the UN General Assembly calling for a ceasefire, and its imports of Russian oil reached record highs of 1.8 million barrels last month.
Asked this week about India's position, External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar said in an interview in Brussels to news portal Euractiv that India has strong ties with both Russia and Ukraine, but that 'every country, naturally, considers its own experience, history and interests'.
Pointing to Western inaction over Pakistan's occupation of Kashmir since 1947, Mr. Jaishankar said that 'if [Western] countries – who were evasive or reticent then – now say 'let's have a great conversation about international principles', I think I'm justified in asking them to reflect on their own past,' he said, when pressed about why India does not criticise Russia for being an 'aggressor' in Ukraine.
'Ceasefire first'
The Ukrainian Minister said Mr. Zelenskyy will declare clearly at the G-7 summit outreach that Ukraine is prepared for summit-level talks between Mr. Putin and Mr. Zelenskyy, although it is unlikely Russia would accept that immediately.
'The Russians have a different logic, that Ukraine must surrender first, and then after we surrender, they will commit to a summit meeting and a ceasefire. Our logic is the reverse. We say, let's have the ceasefire that will contribute to a conducive environment for the meeting of the presidents,' he said.
Speaking about 'Operation Spider Web' in which Ukraine attacked several Russian military bases and destroyed Russian strategic fighter jets using 117 drones smuggled into Russia on June 1, Mr. Kyslytsya said Ukraine's military operation had 'debunked' all the 'doomsday scenarios' that its forces were failing in the war by carrying out the complex attack.
However, he accepted that the drone attack was not 'enough to change the tide and to change the situation in the battlefield. 'We are clearly dealing with the war of attrition [by Russia], and neither of the two sides, either in terms of resources or capacities, is able to achieve a major breakthrough,' Mr. Kyslytsya told The Hindu on the sidelines of a conference on conflict resolution in Oslo last week.