PM Modi welcomes negotiations between Russia & Ukraine

Prime Minister Narendra Modi has welcomed the ongoing negotiations between Russia and Ukraine and expressed hope that they would lead to cessation of the conflict. He suggested that a direct conversation between President Putin and President Zelenskyy may greatly assist the ongoing peace efforts. Modi has had three telephonic conversations with Russia’s President Vladimir Putin and spoken twice with Ukraine’s Volodymyr Zelenskyy since Russia launched an invasion on February 24. Modi has asked Putin and Zelenskyy to hold “direct talks” suggesting that avoiding meeting one another would complicate the problem further. India demanded a ceasefire in Ukraine at United Nations meetings including the Security Council deliberations. Modi reiterated this stand in his talks with Putin, Zelenskyy and telephonic conversations with Poland’s President Andrez Duda.

Some of the foreign nationals were also evacuated by India. Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina on Wednesday thanked Prime Minister Narendra Modi for evacuating nine citizens of Bangladesh from Ukraine's Sumy under 'Operation Ganga', Bangladeshi nationals, who were stuck in north-eastern city Sumy, were evacuated along with 694 Indians brought to Poltava city in Ukraine. They will be brought back to India along with the other Indian nationals from Poland on Wednesday or Thursday. A Pakistani national, Asma Shafique, thanked Modi and the Indian embassy in Kyiv for evacuating her from Ukraine. A video clip in which she thanked Modi is being shared widely on social media.