Ukrainian President Zelenskyy reacts strongly to PM Modi’s meet with Russian President Putin
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy responded strongly to Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s two-day visit to Russia, calling his meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin a “huge disappointment and a devastating blow to peace efforts.”
On Monday, Prime Minister Modi met with Putin informally at the latter’s official house in Novo-Ogaryovo, outside Moscow, marking his first visit to Russia since the country launched a full-fledged invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.
‘Huge disapointment to see Modi hug Putin’: Zelenskyy
Zelenskyy, who met PM Modi on the sidelines of the G7 summit last month, said in a post on X, “It is a huge disappointment and a devastating blow to peace efforts to see the leader of the world’s largest democracy hug the world’s most bloody criminal in Moscow on such a day.”
Also read: ‘Bharat badal raha hai’, says PM Modi at diaspora event in Moscow
PM Modi greeted Russian President Vladmir Putin with a tight hug
PM Modi greeted the Russian President with a strong hug yesterday. The two’s camaraderie was on full display as they chatted over tea, exchanged compliments, and took a tour of the expansive estate grounds, with Putin wheeling the visiting Indian leader around in a golf cart.
Zelenskyy’s critique came on the same day that a Russian missile attacked a children’s hospital in Kyiv, killing at least 24 people and wreaking enormous havoc.
According to sources, PM Modi is believed to have informed Putin that conversation and diplomacy are the best ways to end the Ukraine issue because no solution can be found on the battlefield.
Also read: Prime Minister Modi lands in Moscow; to meet Russian President Putin
Russian missiles kill 41 in Ukraine
Russian missiles pounded cities across Ukraine on Monday, destroying the country’s largest children’s hospital and other structures in a ferocious assault that disrupted heart surgeries and forced young cancer patients to receive their treatments outside. Officials confirmed that at least 41 persons were killed.
Zelenskyy announced on social media that the afternoon assault targeted five Ukrainian cities with over 40 different types of missiles. Ukraine’s air force said it intercepted 30 missiles.
It was Russia’s most intense bombardment of Kyiv in nearly four months, targeting seven of the city’s ten districts. At least seven individuals were killed in the capital, including two medical staff members. Strikes in Kryvyi Rih, Zelenskyy’s birthplace in central Ukraine, killed ten.
“It is very important that the world should not be silent about it now and that everyone should see what Russia is and what it is doing,” according to Zelenskyy.