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Indian PM Urges Zelenskiy to Sit Down for Talks with Russia during 'Historic' Visit to Kyiv

]Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskiy meets with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, as Russia's attack on Ukraine continues, in Kyiv, Ukraine August 23, 2024. REUTERS/Gleb Garanich Purchase Licensing Rights
]Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskiy meets with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, as Russia's attack on Ukraine continues, in Kyiv, Ukraine August 23, 2024. REUTERS/Gleb Garanich Purchase Licensing Rights
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Indian PM Urges Zelenskiy to Sit Down for Talks with Russia during 'Historic' Visit to Kyiv

]Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskiy meets with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, as Russia's attack on Ukraine continues, in Kyiv, Ukraine August 23, 2024. REUTERS/Gleb Garanich Purchase Licensing Rights
]Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskiy meets with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, as Russia's attack on Ukraine continues, in Kyiv, Ukraine August 23, 2024. REUTERS/Gleb Garanich Purchase Licensing Rights

India's Narendra Modi urged President Volodymyr Zelenskiy on Friday to sit down for talks with Russia to end the war in Ukraine and offered to act as a friend to help bring peace as the two leaders met in wartime Kyiv.
The first visit by an Indian prime minister in modern Ukrainian history came at a volatile juncture in the war launched by Russia in February 2022. Moscow is making slow gains in eastern Ukraine as Kyiv presses a cross-border incursion.
The optics closely resembled the Indian leader's visit to Moscow last month where he called for peace and embraced Russian President Vladimir Putin, angering Ukraine, where a Russian missile strike hit a children's hospital on the same day.
"The road to resolution can only be found through dialogue and diplomacy. And we should move in that direction without wasting any time. Both sides should sit together to find a way out of this crisis," Modi said in Kyiv, according to Reuters.

"I want to assure you that India is ready to play an active role in any efforts towards peace. If I can play any role in this personally, I will do that, I want to assure you as a friend," he said.
It was not immediately clear what Kyiv made of his remarks and whether they were part of a diplomatic push taking place behind closed doors with a November presidential election looming in the United States, a close ally of Ukraine.

Speaking later on Friday in his regular address to the nation after the visit had ended, Zelenskiy said it is "important to us that India remains committed to international law and supports our sovereignty and territorial integrity".
He also said he appreciated that Modi had begun the visit by paying tribute to the children killed in the July hospital strike.
India, which traditionally has close economic and defence relations with Moscow, has publicly criticized the deaths of innocent people in the war, but also strengthened its economic ties with Moscow.
Both leaders described Modi's visit as "historic" in their statements during their meeting, in which Modi spoke second and Zelenskiy had no opportunity to respond to the call for dialogue.
Zelenskiy said that "the matter of ending the war and a just peace are the priority for Ukraine".

Ukraine has repeatedly said it wants the war to end but on Kyiv's terms, not Russia's. Ukraine has been pushing to hold a second international summit later this year to advance its vision of peace and involve representatives from Russia.
The first summit, held in Switzerland in June, pointedly excluded Russia, while attracting scores of delegations, including one from India, but not from China, the world's second largest economy. Zelenskiy urged Modi to sign the summit's communique, which India has not done.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said on Monday that talks were out of the question after Ukraine launched its incursion into Russia's Kursk region on Aug. 6.
Kyiv's top commander has touted the capture of almost 100 settlements in the assault, part of what military analysts see as an attempt to divert Russian troops from eastern Ukraine where Moscow's forces are making gains.
Modi's visit to Moscow prompted Zelenskiy to criticize the Indian prime minister when the trip coincided with the missile strike that hit a children's hospital in Kyiv.
As he welcomed Modi to the Mariinskyi presidential palace in Kyiv, Zelenskiy embraced him with a frowning expression before they began talks. Modi issued renewed condolences over the missile strike on X in a post written in Ukrainian.
"Conflict is particularly devastating for young children. My heart goes out to the families of children who lost their lives, and I pray that they find the strength to endure their grief," the post said.
In the run-up to the visit, Mykhailo Podolyak, an adviser in Zelenskiy's office, told Reuters it was significant because New Delhi "really has a certain influence" over Moscow.
"It's extremely important for us to effectively build relations with such countries, to explain to them what the correct end to the war is - and that it is also in their interests," he said.
As Western nations have imposed sanctions on Russia and cut trade relations with it over the invasion, India has developed its economic ties.
Indian refiners that rarely bought Russian oil in the past have emerged as Moscow's top clients for seaborne crude since Russia poured troops into Ukraine two-and-a-half years ago. Russian oil accounts for over two-fifths of India's oil imports.

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UN Rights Chief Raises Alarm about Myanmar's Rohingya Civilians Trapped by Fighting

Pro-democracy guerrillas and ethnic minority armed forces, including the Arakan Army, have been battling to oust the country’s military rulers since they seized power in 2021 from the elected government of Aung San Suu Kyi. - The AP
Pro-democracy guerrillas and ethnic minority armed forces, including the Arakan Army, have been battling to oust the country’s military rulers since they seized power in 2021 from the elected government of Aung San Suu Kyi. - The AP
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UN Rights Chief Raises Alarm about Myanmar's Rohingya Civilians Trapped by Fighting

Pro-democracy guerrillas and ethnic minority armed forces, including the Arakan Army, have been battling to oust the country’s military rulers since they seized power in 2021 from the elected government of Aung San Suu Kyi. - The AP
Pro-democracy guerrillas and ethnic minority armed forces, including the Arakan Army, have been battling to oust the country’s military rulers since they seized power in 2021 from the elected government of Aung San Suu Kyi. - The AP

The UN's human rights chief joined a chorus of concern Friday for members of Myanmar’s Muslim Rohingya ethnic minority after many were reported killed in recent fighting between the military government and the Arakan Army, an armed ethnic rebel group.

According to a statement from the Geneva office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Türk, he “expressed grave alarm and raised profound concerns about the sharply deteriorating situation across Myanmar, particularly in Rakhine State where hundreds of civilians have reportedly been killed while trying to flee the fighting.”

It said his agency had documented that ”both the military and the Arakan Army, which now controls most of the townships in Rakhine, have committed serious human rights violations and abuses against the Rohingya, including extrajudicial killings, some involving beheadings, abductions, forced recruitment, indiscriminate bombardments of towns and villages using drones and artillery, and arson attacks.”

The statement cited an Aug. 5 attack along the Naf River bordering Bangladesh, when “dozens were reportedly killed, including by armed drones,” but said it was unclear who was responsible.

At the time, The Associated Press reported that at least 150 Rohingya may have been killed by artillery and drone attacks, and cited survivors as saying they believed the attacks were carried out by the Arakan Army.

The group, which is the military wing of the state’s Buddhist Rakhine ethnic group, denied responsibility for the attack on Rohingya fleeing the fighting in the town of Maungdaw, which the Arakan Army has been trying to seize from the army. However, more accounts have since surfaced placing the blame on the group.

Pro-democracy guerrillas and ethnic minority armed forces, including the Arakan Army, have been battling to oust the country’s military rulers since they seized power in 2021 from the elected government of Aung San Suu Kyi.

However, the fighting in Rakhine has raised fears of a revival of organized violence against members of the Rohingya minority.

In 2017, a military counter-insurgency campaign drove at least 740,000 members of their community to Bangladesh for safety. Almost all still remain there in overcrowded refugee camps, unable to return home because of the continuing instability. International courts are investigating whether the 2017 action by the army constituted genocide.

Ahead of the seventh anniversary Sunday of the flight of the Rohingya to escape the counter-insurgency, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres called on all parties fighting in the country to end the violence and protect civilians, his spokesman said Friday.

The UN chief said around 1 million Rohingya are presently sheltering in Bangladesh — and over 130,000 more across the region — “without immediate prospects to return,” spokesman Stephane Dujarric said.

Many Rohingya have lived in Myanmar for generations, but face widespread prejudice and are generally denied citizenship and other basic rights in the Buddhist-majority country.

“Despite the world saying ‘never again’ we are once more witnessing killings, destruction and displacement in Rakhine,” said Türk's statement.

Amnesty International on Wednesday said recent attacks on the Rohingya ”bear a terrifying resemblance to the atrocities of August 2017.”

“Rohingya civilians are now caught in the middle of intensifying conflict in Rakhine State,” said its Myanmar researcher Joe Freeman, adding that the Myanmar military “has forcefully conscripted Rohingya to fight on its side.”

Freeman urged Myanmar’s military to ”immediately end their renewed campaign of violence and refrain from unlawful attacks on civilians.”

New York-base Human Rights Watch last week also raised the alarm about violence in Rakhine.

”Both sides are using hate speech, attacks on civilians, and massive arson to drive people from their homes and villages, raising the specter of ethnic cleansing,” said the group's Asia director, Elaine Pearson.

A joint statement from Rohingya support groups Friday estimated that at least 200 Rohingya were killed on Aug. 5 in what it called “the Naf River Massacre,” and also blamed the Arakan Army.

The Rohingya left in Maungdaw are trapped in intense fighting and “in urgent need of international protection and humanitarian assistance,” said the statement, endorsed by more than 100 activist groups.