India’s Modi will visit Ukraine after Zelenskyy’s criticism for meeting Putin in Moscow

NEW DELHI (AP) — Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi will visit Ukraine this week and meet with President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, the two countries announced Monday, weeks after he met President Vladimir Putin in Moscow.

Modi will visit Ukraine on Zelenskyy’s invitation on Friday, Tanmaya Lal, a senior official at the Ministry of External Affairs, said at a briefing in New Delhi. He said the visit will provide an opportunity for the two leaders to discuss cooperation in defense, economic and business ties, science and technology and other sectors.

Ukraine’s Presidential Office also announced Modi’s trip, saying it’s his first visit during which two leaders will sign multiple cooperation documents and discuss “matters of bilateral and multilateral cooperation.”

Modi’s trip to Ukraine comes a month after Zelenskyy criticized his two-day visit to Moscow in July, when he met with Putin on the day Russian missiles struck across Ukraine, killing scores of people.

Zelenskyy had described the meeting as 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.” He also chided Modi for hugging Putin during their meeting.

Modi did not address the strikes directly during his trip, but alluded to the bloodshed while speaking about his meeting with Putin.

“Be it war, a struggle or a terrorist attack, every person who believes in humanity, when there is loss of life, he is pained,” Modi said then. “When innocent children are killed, when we see innocent children dying, then the heart pains. And that pain is very horrible.”

India has avoided condemning Russia’s invasion and instead has urged Russia and Ukraine to resolve the