Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy on Friday called on India to lend its support to Ukraine in its war with Russia and urged it to refrain from taking a neutral or balancing stance in the crisis.
Speaking to reporters after holding wide-ranging talks with Prime Minister Narendra Modi in Kyiv, Zelenskyy also expressed his desire to visit India soon and reach out to Indians.
PM Modi arrived in Kyiv earlier in the day, becoming the first Indian Prime Minister to visit war-torn Ukraine since its independence. PM Modi also held one-on-one and delegation-level talks with Zelenskyy with a focus on ways to find a negotiated settlement to the Russia-Ukraine conflict that has badly impacted the world.
“Want India on our side to end the war and not do a balancing act. I want to visit India soon and reach out to Indian people. India has a big role to play in ending our war with Russia. India is an important country in the world and can have a big role in peace making,” the Ukrainian President said while speaking to India Today TV exclusively.
When asked about his meeting with PM Modi, Zelenskyy said, “We had a very good meeting, in fact a historical one. It was not about me or PM Modi, but about both the nation and its people. I am very thankful to PM Modi for coming to Ukraine”.
Speaking about the four agreements inked by India and Ukraine earlier in the day, Zelenskyy said that Kyiv was ready to extend its technology to India for mutual benefit.
“We signed four Memorandum of Understandings (MoUs) with India and I think it’s just the beginning. During the meeting, I told the Prime Minister that we are ready to share our technology with India,” he added.
Later, while speaking to news agency ANI, President Zelenskyy also said that India will play its role in the war which was started by one man, Vladimir Putin.
“India will play its role. I think that India has begun to recognise that this is not just conflict, this is a real war of one man and his name is Putin against the whole country whose name is Ukraine. You are a big country. You have a big influence, and you can stop Putin and halt his economy, and put him really in his place,” he said.
President Volodymyr Zelenskyy also said that Russian President Vladimir Putin doesn’t respect Prime Minister Narendra Modi and does not want peace.
“The problem is that Putin doesn’t want peace. I don’t know what they spoke about when they had the meeting. If, during the official visit of the PM, you attack the children in hospital. So, he had to recognise that he (the Russian President) didn’t respect India or didn’t control his Army. It means that he doesn’t respect the Indian PM,” Zelenskyy said.
Zelenskyy also said that Ukraine wants to directly engage with India and buy products made in India in the near future.
“We are ready to exchange. We are ready to buy. We are ready to produce. We are ready to open your companies here or we are ready to open our companies in India. So we are very ready for such dialogue and for such work,” he said.
The Ukrainian President also expressed his desire to visit India and said that he needs New Delhi by his side during the ongoing crisis.
“Yes, I have plans to visit India. I read a lot about your big and great country. It’s very interesting. I will not have time to see your country. It’s a pity because, during the war, I didn’t have time to look and to see. I very much need India on our side. It’s not about your historical choice, but who knows? Maybe India can be the key to this diplomatic influence,” he said.
Speaking about PM Modi’s Russia visit earlier this year, Zelenskyy said that he didn’t condemn the Prime Minister’s trip to Moscow, but was unhappy with the fact that PM Modi went to Russia and Putin was killing Ukrainians.
“As for Putin, my position was that my signal of condemnation was not because the PM (Modi) came to see Putin, but because the PM came to Putin and Putin killed our children. A person like Putin would understand that he’s doing something wrong when he is isolated. That is when he will realise that he is alone, and that the whole world condemns him,” Zelenskyy said.
Volodymyr Zelenskyy also thanked PM Modi for his ‘historic’ visit to Ukraine and called it a very important development.
“I am happy that PM Modi came to visit us and I believe this is very important. This is the first visit of the Prime Minister of India to Ukraine. We are ready on our part to take the respective steps. We’ve heard messages from the Indian side that they would be happy to welcome our team to India,” he said.
When asked about the ongoing Israel-Gaza conflict, Volodymyr Zelenskyy termed it to be a very sensitive moment.
“It is a very sensitive moment. There are a lot of different religions and I guess that the same religions are available in Russia. So, it is not a war that has anything to do with religious discrepancies. This is a war of one person, that’s it. In our case, we have a person who is gradually doing all the steps. This is the war of this man. He had this idea. We can’t compare it with a war, with a crisis in the Middle East, he said.