Ukraine backs India's active role in peace talks after Jaishankar call

India supports an early end to the Ukraine conflict, External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar said on Thursday after speaking to his Ukrainian counterpart Andrii Sybiha.

The two foreign ministers deliberated on ending the conflict during their phone conversation.

"Discussed our bilateral cooperation as well as the Ukraine conflict. India supports an early end to this conflict and the establishment of an enduring peace," Jaishankar said on X.

Sybiha said he informed Jaishankar about the "current battlefield situation and Ukraine's efforts to achieve a just peace."  "We rely on India's authoritative voice and active role in supporting the full cessation of hostilities and broader international peace efforts," he said on social media.

The Ukrainian foreign minister said he and Jaishankar agreed to meet on the margins of the UN General Assembly later this month.

"We agreed to meet during the UNGA high-level week in New York and continue the tangible development of our bilateral relations, including in political dialogue, upcoming high-level contacts, economic cooperation, technology, and other areas," he said.

The Jaishankar-Sybiha talks came three days after Prime Minister Narendra Modi met Russian President Vladimir Putin on the sidelines of the annual summit of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) in China's Tianjin.

In the meeting, Modi conveyed to Putin that India welcomes all the recent efforts towards establishing peace in Ukraine and that it is humanity's call to find a way to resolve hostilities as soon as possible.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy dialled Modi on Saturday, two days before Modi's meeting with the Russian president.

After the phone conversation with Modi, Zelenskyy said India is ready to make the necessary efforts and to deliver the appropriate signal to Russia.

India has been consistently calling for ending the Russia-Ukraine conflict through dialogue and diplomacy.

In July last year, Modi travelled to Moscow and told Putin that a solution to the Ukraine conflict is not possible on the battlefield and peace efforts do not succeed in the midst of bombs and bullets.

The next month, Modi visited the Ukranian capital city of Kyiv and conveyed to Zelenskyy that both Ukraine and Russia should sit together without wasting time to end the war.