Prime Minister Narendra Modi spoke with Russian President Vladimir Putin on Thursday, and urged the latter to resolve differences between the country and the North Atlantic Treaty Alliance (NATO) through “honest and sincere dialogue”. The conversation between the leaders come in the wake of Russia's full-blown invasion of Ukraine via sea, land and air on Thursday.
PM Modi also called for immediate cessation of violence between Russia and Ukraine, and urged to resort to “concerted efforts” from all spectrums in order to return to “diplomatic negotiations and dialogue," a statement from the Prime Minister's Office (PMO) read.
Full coverage of Russia-Ukraine crisis here
PM Modi apprised Putin about India's concerns regarding the safety of its students and citizens stranded in Ukraine, and conveyed that the country gives utmost priority to their safe exit from the eastern European nation.
The Russian president briefed the Indian prime minister about the recent developments that unfolded in Ukraine.
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“The leaders agreed that their officials and diplomatic teams would continue to maintain regular contacts on issues of topical interest,” the statement added.
Earlier in the day, Ukraine's ambassador to India pleaded with Modi to have a conversation with Putin, saying the Russian head of the state may listen to him.
“I don't know how many world leaders Putin may listen to but the status of Modi ji makes me hopeful. In case of his strong voice, Putin at least should think over,” Dr Igor Polikha was quoted as saying by news agency ANI.
{{/usCountry}}“I don't know how many world leaders Putin may listen to but the status of Modi ji makes me hopeful. In case of his strong voice, Putin at least should think over,” Dr Igor Polikha was quoted as saying by news agency ANI.
{{/usCountry}}He urged India for its “strong voice” to stop the war between Russia and Ukraine.
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Russia began invading Ukraine in the wee hours of Thursday after Putin's call of a military operation in its Soviet neighbour. In what unfolded throughout the day was several destruction of airplanes, helicopters, and military targets by both countries.
Visuals flooding the social media handles of news agencies showed scared Ukrainians taking to metro stations, including mothers with young children, in order to take shelter. The West continues to heavily come down upon Putin for the full-scale invasion of Ukraine, even as Putin in a latest update defended the move, saying there was “no other way” to protect his country.
Meanwhile, Ukraine shut its airspace soon after Russian troops crossed over to its territory, causing an Air India flight that was en route to Kyiv to repatriate stranded Indians, to return. The external affairs ministry, has, however, assured of resorting to alternative solutions to fetch the stranded Indian nationals and students from the European nation.
India has sent teams from its embassies in four countries - Romania, Hungary, Slovakia and Poland, that share land borders with Ukraine, in order to bring back stranded Indians from the nation.