Ukraine urges India to rethink 'Soviet legacy' of Russia ties, FT says

FILE PHOTO: Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba attends a joint press conference with his German counterpart Annalena Baerbock, on the second anniversary of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, in Odesa, Ukraine, February 24, 2024. REUTERS/Stringer/File Photo

(Reuters) -Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba has urged India to stand by Kyiv, saying the South Asian nation’s close ties with Russia are based on a Soviet legacy that is evaporating, the Financial Times reported on Friday.

India has traditionally had close economic and defence ties with Moscow and refrained from criticising Russia over its February 2022 invasion of Ukraine, instead increasing purchases of Russian oil to a record.

Kuleba, who began a two-day visit on Thursday looking to advance Kyiv’s vision of the path to peace in Ukraine and strengthen ties with India, said it had much to gain from expanding trade and technology ties with his country.

“We are interested in importing some of the heavy machinery items that India is producing,” he said, as Ukraine looks to restore trade with India, particularly of farm products such as sunflower oil and other Indian goods.

He offered Indian companies a role in postwar reconstruction.

“The co-operation between India and Russia is largely based on the Soviet legacy,” he added. “But this is not the legacy that will be kept for centuries; it is a legacy that is evaporating.”

Ukraine hopes to hold a summit of world leaders without Russian participation in the coming months to advance its blueprint for peace, which calls among other things for the withdrawal of Russian troops from its territory.

Ukraine was not against co-operation between India and Russia, Kuleba told the Times of India newspaper in a separate interview, adding that engagement between New Delhi and Kyiv had grown since the start of the war.

“Our job is to convey a simple message to New Delhi,” he added. “When you decide to engage with Russia, please know the red line for Ukraine is financing Russia’s war machine.”

Russia has dismissed the Ukrainian diplomatic initiative as a non-starter.

(Reporting by Nilutpal Timsina in Bengaluru; Additional reporting by Shivam Patel in New Delhi; Editing by Lincoln Feast and Clarence Fernandez)