Ukraine’s Kuleba to visit India for advancing Kyiv peace plan

By Sudhi Ranjan Sen

Ukraine’s Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba will visit India this month — the first high level visit since the Russian invasion — as Kyiv seeks allies for its peace initiative, according to people familiar with the matter.

Kuleba will be meeting S Jaishankar, India's Minister of External Affairs, during his visit scheduled for end of this month, the people said, asking not to be named as the information is not public. The ministers had spoken over phone in January about the ongoing conflict.

Ukraine, its Group of Seven allies and a few Global South countries including India had met in December to rally support for Kyiv’s peace plan. The South Asian country has deep ties with Moscow and has not publicly criticized or voted against Russia at United Nations.

Ukraine’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs did not respond to email seeking a comment. India’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs declined to comment.

Three years into Russia’s war in Ukraine, Switzerland is preparing to host a global peace summit on the conflict at President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s request. India has pushed for dialog and diplomacy to resolve the war.