Ukraine seeks war recovery assistance from India

Ukraine has asked India to supply medicines and medical equipment and help it rebuild war-damaged infrastructure, Indian officials said.

On a visit to New Delhi, Kyiv’s deputy foreign affairs minister Emine Dzhaparova highlighted Ukraine’s desire to build a stronger and closer relationship with India.

She also handed a letter by President Volodymyr Zelensky to Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Details of the letter were not immediately known.

Mr Modi and Mr Zelensky have spoken over the phone in the past year, but India has refrained from condemning Russia’s invasion and has abstained several times from voting on UN resolutions against Moscow.

India has maintained high-level contacts with Russia and is one of Moscow’s key trade partners in the defence and oil industries.

New Delhi has stressed the need for diplomacy and dialogue on ending the war and has expressed its willingness to contribute to peace efforts.

Apart from providing medicines and medical equipment, India would also supply school buses to Ukraine, the Indian statement said.

Ms Dzhaparova proposed that rebuilding infrastructure in Ukraine could be an opportunity for Indian companies, the statement said.

India “can play a bigger and greater role” and Ukraine would “welcome any effort that is directed at resolving the war”, she said in a speech at the Indian Council of World Affairs, a think tank in New Delhi.

The sides agreed to hold the next round of foreign ministry consultations in Kyiv on a mutually convenient date, the Indian foreign ministry said.