PM Modi can end Ukraine war; mere words not enough, says Zelenskyy: Report

India and Prime Minister Narendra Modi have a huge value in the world today and that is their influence can bring an end to some of the raging conflicts, including the one in Ukraine, that country’s president Volodymyr Zelenskyy has said in an interview to The Times of India.

More importantly, he has suggested that PM Modi may even hold the negotiations between Russia and Ukraine in India. However, Zelenskyy was quick to assert that the negotiations would have to be in their “format” because the war was in their land.”

Cornered Ukraine

The Ukraine conflict has been raging for more than two years and eight months now, with vital support from Western nations, including the US, which has been sending arms and ammunition worth billions of dollars.

Also read: India has credibility to mediate in Ukraine war: Ex-British PM Cameron

However, a victory for Donald Trump in the November US presidential elections is likely to put an end to all that support. With Russia advancing through the Donbas region and targeting Ukraine’s energy infrastructure ahead of winter, Kyiv would be looking at an early end to the conflict.

What Zelenskyy wants

However, Zelenskyy pointed out that mere words from PM Modi were not enough and he must do more to actually effect an end to the war. “Modi is the PM of a really huge country…Such a country cannot just say we are interested in the end of the war… PM Modi can influence the end of the war,” he told TOI.

He added that the Russian economy must be blocked, along with its cheap energy resources and defence-industrial complex, to decrease Moscow’s capacity to wage the war.

Also read: Modi calls for peace in Eurasia, West Asia; says, 'battlefield can't offer solutions'

India and China are among the countries that have continued to import cheap crude oil from Russia despite the war. In August, India surpassed China to become Russia’s top oil buyer, with Russian crude accounting for 44 per cent of India’s imports.

“Bring back the children”

Zelenskyy specifically requested Modi’s help to bring back Ukrainian children forcibly taken away by Russia. “PM Modi can use his influence and tell [Russian President Vladimir] Putin, ‘just give me one thousand Ukrainian children who will be brought back to Ukraine,” he told TOI.

Zelenskyy called the recent BRICS Summit in Russia a failure, saying Putin’s refusal to accept Brazil’s and China’s peace proposals were “a slap” for the two countries.

Also read: Doval briefs French President on Indian efforts to end Russia-Ukraine war

Ukraine’s “victory plan”

He said the “victory plan” recently laid down by Ukraine — including the request for a formal invitation for the country to join the NATO — was a bid to strengthen Ukraine and not a bargaining chip in negotiations with Russia.

However, the NATO has so far been lukewarm to the request with German Chancellor Olaf Scholz dismissing the idea outright while the war was on. The “victory plan” also includes permission to use Western long-range missiles to strike military targets in Russia.