• Modi expressed renewed condolences over the strike at a children’s hospital in a post written in Ukrainian.
• The visit holds significance for Kyiv, which is working to build diplomatic relations.
• Modi used emotive language to deliver an implicit rebuke to Putin at their summit.

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi met with President Volodymyr Zelensky in wartime Kyiv on Friday, following a recent outburst from the Ukrainian leader about Modi’s trip to Moscow.

Modi seized this visit as an opportunity to mend relations after his July meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin, during which Moscow conducted a large missile strike on Ukraine, hitting a children’s hospital.

When Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi arrived at the Mariinsky Presidential Palace in Kyiv, President Zelensky greeted him with a frown before they began their discussions. Modi expressed renewed condolences over the strike on X in a post written in Ukrainian.

“Conflict is particularly devastating for young children. My heart goes out to the families of children who lost their lives, and I pray that they find the strength to endure their grief,” the post said.

The visit holds significance for Kyiv, which is working to build diplomatic relations in the Global South to secure a fair settlement to end the war with Russia.

India, traditionally close with Moscow economically and defensively, has publicly condemned the deaths of innocent people in the war. Despite this, India has also strengthened its economic ties with Moscow.

The trip occurs at a volatile moment in the conflict, with Ukrainian forces remaining in Russia’s western Kursk region after their incursion on August 6, and Russian troops making slow but steady advances in Ukraine’s east.

Ukrainian officials greeted Modi off the train with a traditional Indian namaste. Later, Modi and Zelensky were seen walking together at the city’s World War Two museum, with Modi’s hand on Zelensky’s shoulder.

Modi used emotive language to deliver an implicit rebuke to Putin at their summit following the attack on the children’s hospital in Ukraine.

But the trip prompted Zelensky to say it was a “huge disappointment and a devastating blow to peace efforts to see the leader of the world’s largest democracy hug the world’s most bloody criminal in Moscow on such a day.”

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