Ukraine bets on India to help get peace deal with Putin

Ukraine has found its favored middleman to help end the war with Russia: Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

As part of a blossoming diplomatic relationship, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy met Modi on Monday evening in New York, during which the two leaders and their entourages discussed the pathway to a peace deal.

A high-ranking Ukrainian official, granted anonymity to discuss the sensitive subject, confirmed that India was Kyiv’s big hope to reach a peace pact it can live with.

According to the official, Modi was clear in summertime discussions with Kyiv that — while Ukraine would inevitably need to compromise on some things to end Moscow’s onslaught — any proposals to end the war should not include giving up territory to Russia.

Modi, in Kyiv’s eyes, has come a long way in a short time.

When he visited Moscow in July and warmly embraced Russian President Vladimir Putin, the response from Kyiv was scathing. Zelenskyy called the hug — on the same day a Russian missile strike killed dozens of Ukrainians — “a huge disappointment and a devastating blow to peace efforts.”

But since then, Ukraine has come to increasingly view India — the world’s most populous nation, which has long promoted non-alignment in its foreign relations — as its ideal intermediary in dealings with the Kremlin.

While New Delhi has consistently refrained from condemning Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, it has spoken in support of respecting sovereignty and territorial integrity, and ending the war. Six weeks after his Moscow trip raised Ukrainian hackles, Modi traveled to Kyiv to meet with Zelenskyy. He vowed to be “a friend” to Kyiv and help bring about a peace deal.

India may be the only global power player that can play the role — or at least the only one able to credibly portray itself as a neutral party to both Moscow and Kyiv.

Switzerland and Austria have sided with the EU in slapping sanctions on Russia. (A peace summit at the Bürgenstock Resort in central Switzerland in June did not have a single participant from the Kremlin, with no Russian officials invited.) Washington and Moscow’s relations are in a deep freeze.

Efforts to play peacemaker by countries such as Saudi Arabia have fallen flat, while China has been accused of actively helping Moscow’s war effort and Zelenskyy has just this month slammed Brazil’s government for “taking Russia’s side.”

That leaves India.

“We are a country which can openly speak with the Russians about this [Ukrainian] problem,” Indian Foreign Minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar said during a visit to Malaysia in March. Putin confirmed as much earlier this month, saying he had “trust and confidence” in India, China and Brazil — all fellow members of the BRICS group of emerging economies — to serve as intermediaries with Ukraine.

On a visit to Germany earlier this month, Jaishankar declared India was “concerned and engaged” with trying to find a way to end the war, and confirmed “suggestions have been made” for India to host its own peace summit. Any such talks would need to include Russia, he added, shooting down the idea of a Swiss-style peace conference that did not have input from the Kremlin.

Zelenskyy has long rejected any proposals that include Ukraine giving up land and furiously lashed out at a six-point peace plan by China and Brazil that did not mention preserving Ukraine’s territorial integrity.

India was not involved in that plan.

In Berlin this month, Jaishankar did not say whether India was planning to put forward its own peace proposal. But hopes are high in Kyiv that New Delhi will step up in the future.

“I can say that India is a reliable partner for Ukraine and it is a global force that can influence the dynamics and the course of events in the world,” Ukrainian Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Heorhii Tykhyi told POLITICO. “And we want to see India’s participation in the peace formula process as India can make a difference.”

Veronika Melkozerova contributed to this report.