Ahead of Russian President Vladimir Putin’s arrival in New Delhi Thursday on a two-day state visit to India, his first to the country since the start of the Ukraine war, several envoys and officials of European capitals are learnt to have “privately” urged the Indian government over the last few days to lean on Putin to end the war.
The Indian Express has learnt that this was conveyed “politely” and “subtly” by the envoys and officials of many European countries, including some in eastern Europe, who view this war as a threat to their existence and European security.
Sources said the gist of the message to Delhi from these European envoys and capitals is: “Putin is a friend of yours, he listens to you, Prime Minister Narendra Modi has said that solutions can’t be found on the battlefield, so please ask him to stop the war.”
This messaging is qualitatively different from the one by the Europeans in the immediate aftermath of the start of the war in February 2022 when they had asked India to condemn the Russian action in Ukraine. At that time, several European leaders and Foreign Ministers had travelled to Delhi to convey their strong sentiments and had asked India to choose a side.
Although it refused to explicitly condemn the Russian invasion, Delhi spoke out against the Bucha massacre and sought an international probe into the incident – this call for a global intervention was a rare move by Delhi. Walking a diplomatic tightrope, India consistently abstained on the resolutions at the UN on the Ukraine war.
The new messaging from Europe is significant given that some of these countries are extremely close strategic partners of India, and many others have emerged as important destinations for Indian workers, students and professionals. They are also hubs of growth, and source of technology and capital. In fact, European Union leaders have been invited as chief guests for the Republic Day parade in January 2026.
South Block mandarins, it is learnt, gave the European envoys and officials a patient hearing while they prepared for the Russian President’s two-day visit.
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With both the US and Europe mounting pressure on India to cut off oil purchases from Moscow which they say is funding Putin’s war machine, the conversations between Putin and Modi will be watched very closely.
Interactions between Modi and Putin have been very frequent since 2022 when the Ukraine war began – they have had a total of 16 conversations, 11 times between 2022 and 2024 and five times this year.
Hosting Putin, Delhi has lined up a private dinner, a state banquet, bilateral meetings, and an address to CEOs. The visit is expected to be very high on the optics and pageantry associated with a state visit.
South Block sources pointed out that Modi first told Putin that “this is not the era of war” in September 2022 on the sidelines of the SCO summit in Uzbekistan, six months after Russia invaded Ukraine. They also recalled that Modi and External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar spoke to Russian leaders when the security of the nuclear power plant in Zaporizhzhia in Ukraine was in question. Delhi also quietly helped in the grain deal between Moscow and Kyiv.
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And in July 2024, when Modi travelled to Moscow, he again conveyed to Putin that “solutions can’t be found on the battlefield.”
Sources said a similar message will be conveyed to Putin, but it will be up to the stakeholders in the conflict – Ukraine, Russia, Europe and the US – to sit together and resolve the conflict.
These messages from Europe were conveyed privately and were taken in the right spirit of diplomatic consultations between countries.
While British, German and French envoys have written an opinion piece in The Times of India, criticising the Russian actions, Poland’s Secretary of State Władysław Teofil Bartoszewski, in an interview to The Indian Express, said, “I would very much hope that Prime Minister Modi will tell Putin: Listen, President, maybe you should sign the peace deal with Ukraine, because it’s not to our advantage, it’s not to your advantage, and nobody else, to have that conflict running… Putin pays attention to what Prime Minister Modi tells him.”
