‘If you stop importing oil…’: In talks with PM Modi, Ukraine’s Zelensky flags India-Russia oil trade amid war

Ukraine's Zelensky on Friday, August 23, highlighted India's crude oil trade with Russia in a meeting with Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Emphasising on India's “global influence”, Zelensky suggested that India can help end Moscow's war in Ukraine by halting the oil trade that significantly funds the Russian military.

“You can stop Vladimir Putin and halt his economy, and put him really in his place,” Zelensky said during the meeting with PM Modi.

Zelensky said, “India will play its role. I think that India has begun to recognise that this is not just a conflict. This is a real war, of one man and his name is Putin, against a whole country, whose name is Ukraine. You are a big country. You have a big influence.”

“….a lot of export possibilities for Russia [were] closed but India is open,” Zelensky reportedly told PM Modi, adding, “It’s about billions which are coming back, which Putin...uses it only because he has now really, officially, a war economy, So, he [Vladimir Putin] has to feel how war is expensive, and his society has to feel it.”

Zelensky said, “The role of India…if you will stop imports of oil, Putin will have huge challenges...Prime Minister Narendra Modi wants peace more than Putin, this is the problem...The problem is that Putin doesn’t want it."

The Ukraine's president said he also suggested to PM Modi during the meeting that India hosts a global peace summit. “I suggested PM Modi to host a global peace summit in India,” he said.

Zelensky also mentioned Moscow's attack on a children's hospital which coincided with PM Modi's July 8-9 visit to Russia for the annual summit. “I don't have all the details of the Moscow meeting, but I said to the prime minister, with whom you have a deal? You speak with him, he’s speaking [about] peace but at this moment exactly he is attacking a hospital….it means that he doesn’t respect the Indian prime minister,” Zelensky said.