New Delhi: India has reportedly expressed unhappiness with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s public criticism of Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi for meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin last week.
Upon arriving in Moscow on July 8, Modi went directly to the presidential Dacha, where he was greeted by Putin, and the two leaders hugged. This photo was widely circulated, and Zelenskyy posted his objection on X.
In Ukraine today, 37 people were killed, three of whom were children, and 170 were injured, including 13 children, as a result of Russia’s brutal missile strike.
A Russian missile struck the largest children’s hospital in Ukraine, targeting young cancer patients. Many were… pic.twitter.com/V1k7PEz2rJ
— Volodymyr Zelenskyy / Володимир Зеленський (@ZelenskyyUa) July 8, 2024
This criticism came against the context of Russian missile strikes, with one reportedly hitting a children’s hospital a few hours before Modi’s public embrace of Putin. The Indian PM had chosen Moscow as his first foreign destination for a bilateral visit in his new third term.
The Ukrainian president’s post on X expressed that 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.”
The day after, Modi did not directly refer to the attack on the children’s hospital, but asserted that when “innocent children” are killed in conflict, then “heart simply explodes”.
While there had been no official reaction from India to Zelenskyy’s post, it is now understood that India may have raised concerns about the strong language of the post when Modi’s foreign tour was still going on. It was the first direct criticism of India from Zelenskyy since the start of the Ukraine war.
There is, however, no public confirmation from either Ukraine or India about New Delhi having raised the matter of Zelenskyy’s post.
The Indian PM had last met with the Ukrainian President in June on the sidelines of the G-7 summit in Italy.
While there is also speculation that Ukraine has cancelled a meeting of a India-Ukraine joint working group on culture, the Indian culture ministry has reportedly stated that it was never on the schedule.
Besides Zelenskyy, the United States had also expressed its concerns about Modi’s visit to Moscow through the State Department, a public speech by the US ambassador, as well as remarks by US National Security adviser Jake Sullivan.
