July 8th. Kyiv city centre. Okhmatdit Another terrible crime by Russia and another dose of hatred towards the enemy. On that day, the people of kyiv did everything they could: they supported the rescuers and the victims, collected food, water and funds for the children and even dismantled the rubble themselves.
Among the hundreds of brave Ukrainians were four medical students from India, who also dismantled bricks, delivered water to people and tried to do everything in their power. Four students from a country that many people consider foreign, hostile or even hostile towards Ukraine. From a country that is so often listed as “pro-Russian” and sees no prospects for partnership and friendship.
Why is this so? Looking ahead, we can say that the root cause lies both in India’s geopolitical landscape and in Ukraine’s ambiguous and short-sighted position in the past.
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More than 50 years ago, during the Soviet Union, international relations with India developed very rapidly. Indians came to the Union to study, and high-quality Indian medicines, cosmetics, cotton and tea arrived there, the iron cans of which were stored for a long time in the homes of prudent owners. Large quantities of metals, oil, machine tools, various technical devices and, most importantly, military equipment were sent to India from the Soviet Union.
One problem: all this happened simultaneously with the complete levelling of any question of nationalities and borders. By default, the word of the Soviets was taken by “great Russia” with its centre in Moscow, not kyiv, Minsk or, for example, Tbilisi. Few people in India remember that the first space mission from Delhi was carried out thanks to components from the Yuzhmash plant in Dnipro.
We could see the reflection of such a policy of the USSR in numerous examples from the most diverse countries of the world, from Europe to South America, some of which only in 2022 realized that Ukraine and Russia are no longer “one country”, no “CIS” and no-what kind of “partners”. The perception of numerous citizens of India, shaped and united by Soviet ideology, was no exception. It mercilessly included Ukraine and Russia among the “Soviet republics”, and later, among the “former Soviet republics”. Hence such a poor understanding of the context in which our country now finds itself.
However, after the collapse of the USSR, India still had the opportunity to understand that Ukraine is not Russia. Although for us it was extremely negative.
The 1990s were difficult and stormy. The Ukrainian heavy industry was having an incredibly difficult time adapting to the realities of a market economy and was doing something it had never done before: looking for markets. One of the largest branches of industry, the production of military equipment, was beginning to decline and was looking for any means of salvation.
And here, apparently, there is a lifeline: a contract from Pakistan for the production of 320 T-80UD tanks, which from 1996 to 1999 were successfully manufactured and sold by the Kharkiv plant named after Malysheva. A contract that Ukraine fulfilled with India’s former rival and enemy during the confrontation over Jammu and Kashmir. A contract that India could perceive in the same way as Ukraine now perceives the supply of Iranian “Shaheed” to Russia.
On the one hand, we have kept the industry afloat. On the other hand, they cast a cold shadow over Indo-Ukrainian relations, over relations with India, which in turn has started buying weapons from Russia.
However, over time, Ukraine’s interaction with the world’s largest democracy developed. Trade between the countries grew steadily in the 2000s, but, unfortunately, there was no competition between our interstate relations and those between India and Russia. Since the 1990s, Russia has been one of India’s largest suppliers of oil, chemical and engineering products, and, as already mentioned, military equipment.
Even under these conditions, Delhi’s emphasis was not fixed. It is no secret that the Indians saw Ukraine as a great place of learning and development, as well as a reliable supplier of grain and various technical products. They invested in Ukraine, sold raw materials and equipment: on the streets of kyiv, even today, you can often see Indian TATA buses and trucks.
Thus, the fundamental nature of Ukraine-India relations is undeniable. It was built over many years of economic cooperation, trade, development of cultural ties and social interaction. For example, in 2021, there was an Indian diaspora community of almost 30,000 people in Ukraine. After the outbreak of the war, a large part of them were forced to move to the countries of the European Union, in particular to Poland.
Despite this, in 2023 there were almost 15,000 Indian students in Ukraine alone. We understand: this is the largest number of foreign students in Ukrainian universities among all nationalities in the world. China is second on the list, with only 5,400 students, almost three times less. This is only one indicator of the close relations between Ukraine and India, but there are other, much more eloquent ones.
As we can recall, during the adoption in February 2023 of the UN General Assembly resolution ES-11/6, which provided for the “immediate, complete and unconditional withdrawal of all Russian forces from the territory of Ukraine”, India “abstained”. However, already in May of the same 2023, during the adoption of the UN resolution “on cooperation between the UN and the Council of Europe”, in which Russia was clearly named as the aggressor, India voted “for”This is just one example of the vector that is currently moving in a positive direction for us. The most striking event took place recently in Kyiv.
On August 23, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi visited Ukraine. On the eve of this event, Bloomberg wrote with restraint that “PM Modi’s visit to kyiv will take place after his trip to Moscow, which drew criticism from the United States” and that “the visit will last only a few hours due to the security situation.”
However, everything was far from being so grey and whimsical. Modi’s conversation with President Zelensky at the Mariinsky Palace alone lasted “several hours.” Afterwards, a broad meeting took place, attended by representatives of the ministries of Ukraine and India, as well as other members of the delegations.
According to the head of the Presidential Office Andriy Yermak, the Indian Prime Minister called the Russian invasion of the territory of Ukraine a “war” and also supported the territorial integrity of the Ukrainian state. This is a very serious signal of India’s support for Ukraine in the current geopolitical situation.
After the official part of the visit, there was also an informal one: a meeting with students of the Gymnasium of Oriental Languages and students of the KNU named after T.G. Shevchenko, who study Hindi. The students note the extremely warm tone of Modi’s communication with young people. When a student of the Secondary School of Oriental Languages sang a song in Hindi, the Prime Minister of India began to sing it.
Interestingly, Modi was late for this meeting again, and because of this, he was more than an hour late for the train from kyiv. What could be a clearer proof of his sincere desire to visit Ukraine?
In addition to the publicly known facts, one cannot ignore the strength that the Indo-Ukrainian community currently has. In this difficult time, it is clearly focused on developing and strengthening the partnership between our countries, trade operations and attracting investments. The institutions that are currently being built and developed are the first rays of the sun that is destined to rise over our countries. The sun, which this time will not be eclipsed by Russia, because in a world where autocracies are merging at a very high speed, democracies cannot help but act as a united front.
It is democratic values that unite the Indian and Ukrainian peoples inextricably. And to them are added the Ukrainians and Indians who together dismantled the rubble of Okhmatdyt. Those Ukrainians and Indians who now have no half-hearted regard for Russia. Those Ukrainians and Indians who know that there is no alternative to democracy in our future.
The column is a material that reflects exclusively the author’s point of view. The text of the column does not claim to be objective or to comprehensively cover the topic it raises. The editorial staff of “Pravda of Ukraine” is not responsible for the reliability and interpretation of the information provided and acts solely as a carrier. The point of view of the editorial staff of UP may not coincide with that of the author of the column.
