Ukraine may be reducing its diesel purchases from India from October and would very much like India to stop buying Russian oil
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy wants everyone’s help, including India’s, when he is in dire need of funds, tech-enabled intelligence and sophisticated arms like weaponised drones to keep an enraged Vladimir Putin at bay. His placatory tone in defence of India on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly can be attributed to the state his country is in as Putin has stepped up his assault to freely terrorise the population by triggering air raid alerts every day, including in Kyiv, after having stepped up the production of drones.
Ukraine may be reducing its diesel purchases from India from October and would very much like India to stop buying Russian oil. It is, however, clear that Zelenskyy is also a votary to the view that if anyone has the ear of Putin, it is China’s Xi Jinping and India’s Narendra Modi now because Donald Trump seems to have soured on his role as mediator and he is egging Ukraine on to fight Russia with European-funded American arms.
India has consistently played its strategic autonomy cards in such a way that it feels wanted in the east and south, besides the west where the US is still confident the current thaw in relations might lead to better ties soon though the trade deal is facing hazards in high tariffs and sanction. The best that India can do in the current state the world finds itself in is to keep speaking to Putin on the need to stop the war though Russia was called a “paper tiger” in another typical yo-yo display of the Trump temperament that flows from his capriciousness.
The incongruity of blaming Russian oil for Putin’s war on Ukraine continuing may have impinged itself on Trump too as he spoke to Europe about cutting its purchase of Russian gas. Zelenskyy is, however, right in pointing out that if the US, Europe and Nato were not to assist him more in stopping Russia, Putin may not be satisfied just with taking parts of Ukraine.
Even more chilling is Zelenskyy’s warning that all it takes in today’s tech-driven madness is for someone to stick a nuke on a drone for the world to fall apart. In such a scenario, shouldn’t India be seen pursuing the cause of peace with Russia’s Putin more? Aspiring for the Nobel Peace Prize is by no means a Trump monopoly.
