Last week, I paid my first official visit to India as Ukraine’s foreign minister. It was an intense and insightful diplomatic trip. In New Delhi, I attended the 10th anniversary edition of the Raisina Dialogue, one of the world’s leading diplomatic forums. I also had a bilateral meeting with my Indian counterpart Dr S. Jaishankar, and several other important meetings with colleagues from Bhutan, Ghana, Nepal, the Philippines and Thailand.
After New Delhi, I travelled to Mumbai, India’s financial capital, where I attended a business forum with over 130 Indian companies and inaugurated Ukraine’s new consulate general. Even during wartime, we are increasing our diplomatic presence in India. It demonstrates India’s importance to Ukraine and the world. India is the world’s largest democracy and a key global player. India aspires to be a permanent member of the UN Security Council, which Ukraine supports.
Throughout my meetings, I sensed a strong desire to expand our bilateral ties, economic cooperation, technology and business contacts. We are eager to expand our mutually beneficial cooperation. I discussed specific projects that can be implemented in the near future to benefit our countries.
We appreciate India’s support for Ukraine’s sovereignty and territorial integrity. The joint statement issued during Prime Minister Modi’s visit to Ukraine in August 2024 reflects India’s support for a just and lasting peace. Historically, Ukraine and India have developed numerous promising areas of cooperation, including agriculture, digitalisation, technology and defence. Because of the war, Ukraine has developed some cutting-edge technology. We have contributed to India’s technological successes. We are proud that Ukrainian engine technology was used in New Delhi’s successful lunar mission. I am confident we can accomplish much more.
Before the full-scale war, we had also hosted a large number of Indian students. We look forward to seeing them again, and we will welcome more Indians once the security situation improves.
All of my conversations and public speeches in India revolved around the path to a fair peace in Ukraine. It was important for me to convey the message to the people of India, as well as wider Indo-Pacific and global audiences: Ukraine wants peace more than anyone else and is actively working to end the war this year.
Ukraine took a significant step toward peace two weeks ago in Jeddah when it agreed to the US proposal for a 30-day full ceasefire. Unfortunately, we are yet to see Russia’s willingness to reciprocate. Instead of accepting Ukraine’s proposal to cease fire unconditionally, Moscow continues to put forward various demands. It is a true demonstration to the world that Ukraine has never been an obstacle to peace, and Russia is the only source of this war.
Russian aggression against Ukraine is colonial at its core. Russia rejects Ukraine’s right to exist as a sovereign nation, deported at least 20,000 Ukrainian children in order to raise them as Russians, and tries to steal Ukrainian natural resources in the occupied territories. There must be no place for such brutal colonialism in the modern world.
We continue to work towards a fair and lasting peace. “The more we sweat in peace, the less we bleed in war,” said former UN General Assembly president Vijaya Lakshmi Pandit, a prominent Indian and the first woman to hold the position. Her words could not be more timely today.
The Minsk process from 2014 to 2022 left us with diplomatic scars. Ukraine engaged in over 200 rounds of negotiations with Russia and established 25 ceasefires, all of which were quickly violated by Russia. The entire peace effort came to an end in February 2022, when Russia unilaterally withdrew from the Minsk process and launched a full-scale invasion. We must not repeat past mistakes.
Now is the time for diplomacy. But diplomacy alone is not enough. It needs to be backed by strength. Our military muscle must compensate for our diplomatic scars. This is why we will not accept any limitations on our armed forces or defence capabilities.
We know that in today’s world, any multilateralism and goodwill must be backed by a million-strong army. And we have such an army now. Ukraine is a force of good, dedicated to the world of the rule of law, rather than the law of force or the jungle.
Ukraine is the country that has made one of the most significant contributions to international peace and security. We gave up the world’s third largest nuclear arsenal in 1994, making the greatest contribution to non-proliferation in human history. In three decades of its independence, Ukraine deployed boots on the ground to maintain peace in other countries. As many as 45,000 Ukrainians served as peacekeepers around the world from the 1990s until 2022. We helped maintain peace around the world. Now we need the world to come together and help restore a fair peace in Ukraine.
Not only Ukraine, but the entire world, including India, the world’s largest democracy and a growing global power, is interested in a fair peace in Ukraine that respects international law and the UN Charter. Aggression must never be rewarded in any way.
Ukraine will never recognise Russia’s occupation of its territory. Allowing redrawing of the maps would mean a return to the Yalta order, where the large and the powerful decide the fate of the smaller. Few countries in the world would enjoy such an order. There will be no Yalta-2 or Minsk-3. We need a fair peace and real security.
We believe that India, as a global power, can play a significant role in restoring peace, as well as in postwar demining, recovery and economic development.
Our actions today are defining the 21st century: whether it will be a century of people or dictators, peace or perpetual war, dignity or disrespect. The Ukrainian battlefield is one of the places where these fundamental principles are being determined and tested. I encourage our Indian friends to pass this test together and come out of it stronger.