Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi will visit Ukraine, the foreign ministry said on Monday, weeks after Kyiv condemned him for hugging President Vladimir Putin during a visit to traditional ally Russia. New Delhi's foreign ministry did not give a date for the visit to Poland and Ukraine but Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk's office said he would meet Modi on Thursday. Modi has trodden a delicate balance between maintaining India's historically warm ties with Russia while courting closer security partnerships with Western nations as a bulwark against regional rival China.
His government has avoided explicit condemnations of Russia's invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, instead urging both sides to resolve their differences through dialogue. Modi's visit to Moscow in July came hours after a Russian barrage hit multiple cities across Ukraine, killing more than three dozen people and heavily damaging a children's hospital in Kyiv. Modi was pictured hugging Putin at his country residence a day earlier, drawing condemnation from Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky.
India and Russia have maintained close links since the Cold War, which saw the Kremlin become a key arms provider to the South Asian country. Russia has also become a major supplier of cut-price crude oil to India since the Ukraine conflict began, providing a much-needed export market after the imposition of Western sanctions. That has dramatically reconfigured their economic ties, with India saving itself billions.