Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has proposed holding a summit in India aimed at ending the war with Russia, according to people familiar with the matter.
The proposal was put to Narendra Modi during the Indian prime minister’s visit to Ukraine last week, the people said, asking not to be identified discussing private talks.
Zelensky aims to hold a second leaders meeting before the US presidential election in November as a follow-up to a summit in June, which sought to win support from nations of the Global South for Kyiv in its 2 1/2 year war with Russia.
A gathering in India, which has been wary of the Ukrainian initiative because it so far excludes Russia, would be viewed as progress in Kyiv. Modi, who during his August 23 visit signalled his backing for Ukrainian sovereignty within its internationally recognised borders, has yet to agree to host a meeting, the people said.
India’s prime minister has signalled his willingness to play a “constructive role” in a peace process, though it’s “too early to comment on specific modalities and pathways at this stage,” Randhir Jaiswal, a spokesman for India’s Ministry of External Affairs said in response to a query.
The diplomatic effort has taken on new urgency as Russian forces gain ground in Ukraine’s eastern Donetsk region and Ukraine’s military made a surprise incursion into Russia’s Kursk region this month. With both sides on the offensive, a diplomatic resolution to the full-blown conflict that began with Russia’s invasion in February 2022 remains a distant prospect.
A Zelensky spokesman, Serhiy Nykyforov, said Ukraine is weighing holding the follow-up summit in a country of the Global South, including India “in particular”.
Zelensky seeks to win broader global support for his 10-point peace blueprint, including a demand to withdraw all Russian forces from Ukrainian territory, and isolate Russia before beginning direct talks. But nations of the Global South have demanded that any forum that pushes for peace can only gain traction if Moscow has a seat at the table.
Ukraine has expressed openness to including Russia in the process, though the Kremlin has repeatedly made clear it has no intention of engaging with Kyiv’s blueprint.
Swiss summit falls short
The June 15-16 summit hosted by Switzerland, which drew more than 100 countries and organizations, fell short in its ambition to cement global support. China did not attend, while India joined delegations including Indonesia and South Africa in declining to sign the final communique.
Zelensky raised the issue during Modi’s visit, seeking India’s signature, the president’s spokesman said, adding that the host of a second summit must have signed the text. The language in that document had already been narrowed to focus on specific issues – nuclear and food safety and the return of abducted children and prisoners – to win over maximum support.
But India’s scepticism of Ukraine’s initiative is due to Russia’s exclusion, according to senior Indian officials familiar with the diplomatic exchanges who spoke on condition of anonymity. Modi’s government has made clear that a solution can only be found through dialogue between the two sides, they said.
Modi followed through with that message during his visit to Kyiv last week – the first by an Indian premier since Ukraine’s independence in 1991. Even as he offered his most direct support for the country’s territorial integrity, he stood by his call for a diplomatic resolution as the only path to peace.
As the West has expressed outrage over Russia’s attack on its neighbour, India has maintained political and economic links with Moscow, which supplies India with cheap oil and weapons. The Indian leader’s Kyiv visit followed a trip to Moscow last month for talks with President Vladimir Putin.
That trip drew criticism from US and Ukrainian officials, particularly because it occurred on the same day that a deadly Russian missile strike hit a children’s hospital in Kyiv. But Modi informed Zelensky this month that he had spoken to Putin – “looking him in the eye” – and told him that “this is not the era for war.”
“I spoke my mind clearly that the solution to any problem cannot be found on the battlefield,” Modi said in Kyiv. India’s prime minister spoke with both US President Joe Biden and Putin about the war in Ukraine following his visit to Kyiv.
The prospect for a summit that would involve Russia has also grown uncertain in the wake of the Kursk incursion. It was followed on Monday by Russia’s biggest aerial attack on Ukraine since the invasion began and targeted the country’s power infrastructure.
Zelensky said earlier this week that the move into the Kursk region was part of a “victory plan” to force Moscow to end the war that he will present to Biden and the contenders for the US presidency next month.
At the same time, his army chief Oleksandr Syrskyi admitted the attack has so far failed to blunt Russia’s push in the east, which increasingly threatens the city of Pokrovsk, the key military logistics hub for Kyiv’s military operations in the east.
Moscow’s military commanders had no plan to send significant forces from Ukraine to the Kursk region, a person close to the Kremlin told journalists last week.
Russian military bloggers have claimed that Ukraine’s defences in the region around Pokrovsk have gradually weakened. At the same time, some have worried that Kyiv may be holding forces back to launch counter attacks further south in the Zaporizhzhia and Kherson regions.
