How SPG thwarted a possible threat to PM Modi at Gandhi statue venue in Kyiv

The SPG team was totally on alert during the 7-hour visit of PM to Kyiv and BR shields were unfolded to foil any sniper as PM Modi walked into the Peace Park

Updated on: Aug 24, 2024, 08:42:05 IST

By Shishir Gupta

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When Prime Minister Narendra Modi offered tributes to Mahatma Gandhi statue at Oasis of Peace Park in Kyiv, the sleuths of Special Protection Group (SPG) deployed the bullet-resistant shields to protect the Indian PM after anti-India sentiment in Ukraine was conveyed by the Indian diaspora.

The sleuths of Special Protection Group (SPG) deployed the bullet-resistant shields to protect PM Modi

No less than 60 SPG commandos led by Director SPG Alok Sharma were deployed at the Mahatma Gandhi statue venue after the PM's team was told about the anti-India sentiment prevailing in Ukraine due to New Delhi's perceived proximity to Russian president Vladimir Putin.

During PM Modi’s meeting with the Indian diaspora, it was conveyed that Indians were facing a tough time in the country as Ukrainians blame Indians for siding with Putin and Russia.

ALSO READ: What are BHISHM Cubes that PM Narendra Modi presented to Ukraine?

It is learnt that the Indian SPG team was totally on alert during the seven-hour visit of the PM to Kyiv and bullet resistant shields were unfolded at the Park to foil any sniper as PM Modi walked into the Peace Park. Videos aired by the news channels showed the BR shields being deployed and the entire place was swarming with security personnel.

The PM's security team heaved a sigh of relief after Narendra Modi boarded the train back to Poland, from where he is flying to New Delhi tonight.

ALSO READ: ‘You have a big influence, can stop Putin’: Zelenskyy to India on Ukraine war

What PM Modi told Zelenskyy about the Ukraine conflict?

Prime Minister Narendra Modi told Ukraine's Volodymyr Zelenskyy that Ukraine and Russia should sit together without wasting time to find ways to end the ongoing war.

"We (India) are not neutral. From the very beginning, we have taken sides. And we have chosen the side of peace. We have come from the land of Buddha where there is no place for war.

The prime minister said India is ever ready to play an "active role" in every effort to restore peace in Ukraine and he would even like to contribute personally in ending the conflict.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Shishir Gupta
Shishir Gupta is Executive Editor at Hindustan Times and one of India's top journalists covering national security, strategic affairs, foreign policy and geopolitics. Over the past three decades, he has extensively reported on India's military, diplomatic and security landscape, covering every major conflict and national security challenge, from the 1999 Kargil War and the 2020 East Ladakh standoff to Operation Sindoor in 2025. He has also covered major terror attacks, including the IC-814 hijacking, the 26/11 Mumbai attacks and the 2025 Pahalgam terror strike, along with numerous Pakistan-backed terrorist incidents in the Kashmir Valley and across India. He has reported on national and state elections for more than three decades. A recognised authority on strategic affairs, Gupta has covered India's nuclear programme since the Pokhran-II (Shakti series) tests in May 1998 and has written extensively on global nuclear issues, Indian diplomacy and the country's expanding global outreach. He has also reported widely on international conflicts and terrorism, with a special focus on the Indian subcontinent. Gupta has interviewed Prime Minister Narendra Modi more than four times, including Modi's first interview with the print media after becoming Prime Minister in May 2014. His other interviews include three with the Dalai Lama, as well as conversations with Benjamin Netanyahu, Amit Shah, Yogi Adityanath, S. Jaishankar, Nirmala Sitharaman and Piyush Goyal. He is the author of Indian Mujahideen: The Enemy Within (Hachette, 2011) and Himalayan Face-off: Chinese Assertion and Indian Riposte (Hachette, 2014). He was awarded the Chevening-Wolfson Joint Scholarship at Wolfson College, University of Cambridge, UK, in 1998 and participated in the International Visitor Leadership Program (IVLP) of the US State Department in 2006. He received the Ben Gurion Prize from Israel in 2011 and the K. Subrahmanyam Prize for Strategic Studies in 2015 from the Manohar Parrikar Institute for Defence Studies and Analyses (MP-IDSA). Since 2024, he has hosted Point Blank, Hindustan Times' weekly YouTube show on global geopolitics.Read More

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