PM Modi Likely To Speak To President Putin As Russia Invades Ukraine: Report

Prime Minister Narendra Modi is likely to speak to Russian President Vladimir Putin on Thursday as  Moscow invaded Ukraine, sources said.

New Delhi: Prime Minister Narendra Modi is likely to speak to Russian President Vladimir Putin on Thursday as  Moscow invaded Ukraine, sources were quoted as saying by news agency ANI.

This comes hours after Ukraine called for India’s support and urged PM Modi to hold talks with President Putin as Russia launched a wide-ranging attack on Kyiv on Thursday, hitting cities and bases with airstrikes or shelling, as civilians piled into trains and cars to flee.

“I think that in this case, your Prime Minister can address Mr Putin. He can address our President. Many times in history, India played a peacekeeping role. We’re asking for your strong voice to stop this war,” Dr. Igor Polikha, Ambassador of Ukraine to India was quoted as saying by news agency ANI.

Ukraine urged India to play “peacekeeping role” and said it was “waiting for an active support” from the country’s leadership in “stopping this war”.

Russian President Vladimir Putin announced that he unleashed an attack on Ukraine in a televised address early Thursday, drawing international condemnation.

Big explosions were heard before dawn in Kyiv, Kharkiv and Odesa as world leaders decried the start of an invasion that could cause massive casualties, topple Ukraine’s democratically elected government and threaten the post-Cold War balance on the continent.

Ukrainians started fleeing some cities, and the Russian military claimed to have incapacitated all of Ukraine’s air defenses and air bases within hours.President Volodymyr Zelenskyy declared martial law, saying Russia has targeted Ukraine’s military infrastructure.

Ukrainians who had long braced for the prospect of an assault, while never knowing precisely when it would come, were urged to stay home and not to panic even as the country’s border guard agency reported an artillery barrage by Russian troops from neighboring Belarus.

(With inputs from AP)