NewDelhi: Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Monday will speak to Russian President Vladimir Putin and his Ukrainian counterpart Volodymyr Zelenskyy, government sources said, as reported by news agency ANI. This comes a day after Putin vowed to continue his military actions in Ukraine, asking the Ukrainian armed forces to surrender.
This will be the second separate telephonic conversation of PM Modi with Putin and Zelenskyy following the beginning of the war between the two countries. The call comes amid India’s all out efforts to evacuate its citizens, mostly students, from war-torn Ukraine.
Notably, PM Modi’s decision to hold another call with Putin and Zelenskyy comes a day after Ukraine’s Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba called on several countries, including India, urging them to talk to the Russian leader and appeal to him to bring an end to the war.
“I call on the governments of India, China, and Nigeria, to appeal to Russia to stop the fire and allow civilians to leave,” he said. “India is one of the largest consumers of Ukrainian agricultural products and if this war continues, it’ll be difficult for us to seed new harvests. So, even in terms of global and Indian food security, it’s in the best interest to stop this war.”
India, as a part of Operation Ganga which was launched on February 26, has intensified its efforts to evacuate its citizens from Ukraine. Till now, India has evacuated more than 15,000 of its nationals from Ukraine through Romania, Poland, Hungary, Slovakia and Moldova via 76 flights.
“Under Operation Ganga, so far 76 flights have brought over 15,920 Indians back to India. Out of these 76 flights, 13 flights landed in the last 24 hours,” a Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) official said on Sunday, as reported by news agency PTI.
Bureau Report
Leave a Reply