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India’s close ties with Russia are based on a “Soviet legacy” that is “evaporating”, Ukraine’s foreign minister has warned as he urged New Delhi to support Kiev.
During a visit to India, Dmytro Kuleba also said he should be concerned about Russia’s deepening ties with China, which is locked in a tense border conflict with its southern neighbor, India.
Speaking to the Financial Times, Kuleba said that “cooperation between India and Russia is largely based on the Soviet legacy. But this is not the legacy that will be cherished for centuries; it’s a legacy that is evaporating.”
India and China have an unresolved border dispute that last escalated into deadly violence in 2020, killing at least 24 people and prompting a buildup of tens of thousands of troops in forward positions in the Himalayas on both sides. India says regular ties with China will not be restored until the status quo at the border is restored.
In a nod to the tensions, Kuleba said: “Sino-Russian relations should be of particular concern to India in light of its national security prerogatives.”
Ukraine has struggled to win the sympathy of India and many other countries of the so-called Global South. These states have mostly avoided taking sides in a war they see as the business of rich nations, and for which they have paid an economic price in terms of trade disruption and higher costs.
Russia remains India’s largest arms supplier, despite New Delhi’s recent push to diversify its imports to France, the United States and other countries. India also became a major buyer of Russian crude oil at discounted prices following Vladimir Putin’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi earlier this month extended “warm congratulations” to Putin after his re-election in a race that the opposition had no meaningful chance of contesting.
Kuleba said the world’s most populous nation had much to gain from expanding trade and technological ties with Ukraine, as it offered Indian companies a role in post-war reconstruction.
“After the war Ukraine will probably become the largest construction site in the world and Indian companies are welcome to participate in the recovery,” Kuleba said.
Ukraine is now trying to “restore trade” with India, the minister said, by resuming exports of agricultural products such as sunflower oil and itself buying more Indian goods. “We are interested in importing some of the heavy machinery that India produces,” he added.
After Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in 2022, Kuleba declared that every barrel of Russian crude purchased by India contained “a good portion of Ukrainian blood” – a sharp rebuke to the Russian-Indian relationship.
Kiev has since sought to smooth relations with New Delhi as it seeks to win more countries to its cause.
Before Kuleba’s visit, Modi and Volodymyr Zelenskyy, Ukraine’s president, spoke by phone last week. Ukrainian Foreign Minister will meet Indian Foreign Minister S Jaishankar on Friday.
Kuleba’s visit to India comes at a time when Ukraine is going through its most difficult phase since Russia’s full-scale invasion in 2022, with Moscow’s forces taking the lead on the front lines and additional military support US frozen due to opposition from Donald Trump and his supporters in India. Congress.
However, Kuleba expressed confidence that Washington will propose a new assistance package regardless of the outcome of this year’s presidential election.
“The question is not if, the question is when and how,” he said.
Majorities of both Democrats and Republicans favor supporting Ukraine, he added.
“Trump himself said that he is not against helping Ukraine,” Kuleba said. “He just wants to change the way this help is provided, from grants to interest-free loans.” Kiev was willing to explore the option, Kuleba said, but “the devil is in the details.”