Jaishankar says India in touch with Russia, Ukraine to help end war
External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar, during a visit covering Poland and Ukraine, said India remains in continuous touch with both Moscow and Kyiv and is willing to help bring the conflict, now in its fifth year, to an end.
In Warsaw, he held consultations with Polish leadership, including Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Radosław Sikorski, on bilateral cooperation and the war's regional and global fallout.
The visit to Kyiv marked the first-ever standalone bilateral visit by an Indian External Affairs Minister to Ukraine, where he met Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha to discuss the peace process and India's potential role in it.
Jaishankar reiterated India's established position that solutions to the conflict will not come from the battlefield but through dialogue and negotiation, and separately defended India's continued purchases of Russian oil as unconnected to resolving the war.
India's Non-Aligned/Strategic Autonomy Position on the Russia-Ukraine War
Since Russia's invasion of Ukraine began in February 2022, India has consistently avoided directly condemning Russia by name at the UN, abstaining on most UNSC and UNGA resolutions on the conflict while calling for dialogue and diplomacy. This reflects India's long-standing doctrine of strategic autonomy — maintaining independent relationships with competing powers rather than aligning with a bloc — rooted in the Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) tradition but distinct from it in a multipolar, post-Cold War context.
Key Details
- India has repeatedly used the phrase "this is not an era of war" (first articulated by the Prime Minister to President Putin in 2022) as its guiding public formulation on the conflict
- India maintains simultaneous high-level engagement with both Russia (a long-standing defence and energy partner) and Ukraine/Western capitals (growing trade, technology, and strategic partners), a balancing act unusual among major powers
- India has offered to facilitate dialogue but has not taken on a formal mediating/peace-broker role in any multilateral framework (unlike, say, Turkey's role in early Black Sea grain negotiations)
Jaishankar's remarks in Warsaw and Kyiv — being "in touch" with both sides and open to helping "in any manner" — are a continuation of this consistent, non-aligned diplomatic posture rather than a new policy shift.
India-Russia Energy Ties and Sanctions-Era Oil Trade
India has become one of the largest buyers of seaborne Russian crude oil since 2022, when Western nations imposed sanctions and a G7 price cap on Russian oil exports following the invasion. India's position is that these purchases are a sovereign economic decision driven by energy security and affordability, not a stance on the war itself.
Key Details
- The G7-EU price cap mechanism (from December 2022) restricts Western insurance/shipping services to Russian oil sold above a set price ceiling; India is not bound by the cap as a non-G7 country but its refiners factor it into deal structuring
- Russian crude's share of India's total crude oil imports rose sharply post-2022, from negligible levels to a leading position among India's supplier countries
- India has faced periodic criticism and secondary-sanctions pressure (including tariff threats) from Western partners over this trade, which New Delhi has pushed back on as double standards given continued European purchases of Russian energy products
Jaishankar's on-record defence of India's oil purchases while visiting Kyiv directly addresses this recurring friction point, arguing that ending the war depends on diplomacy, not on India's commodity trade choices.
India-Poland Bilateral Relations and Central-Eastern Europe Outreach
India and Poland established diplomatic relations in 1954, and the relationship has gained renewed strategic salience since 2022 given Poland's frontline position bordering Ukraine and hosting significant refugee flows and NATO logistics for Ukraine's war effort.
Key Details
- Poland is a NATO and EU member state, making it a key node for Western military and humanitarian support reaching Ukraine
- India-Poland engagement covers trade, defence cooperation, and people-to-people ties, with periodic ministerial exchanges (Polish delegations have visited India in recent years alongside reciprocal Indian visits)
- India's outreach to Central European states like Poland forms part of its broader effort to diversify partnerships beyond traditional Western European powers (UK, France, Germany) and engage the EU's eastern flank directly
Holding talks with Poland's Deputy PM/Foreign Minister before proceeding to Kyiv allowed India to calibrate its message with a key Western frontline state ahead of direct engagement with Ukraine.
- Jaishankar's Kyiv visit (September 2026) was the first-ever standalone bilateral visit by an Indian External Affairs Minister to Ukraine
- The Russia-Ukraine war, which began in February 2022, is now in its fifth year as of 2026
- India's diplomatic formulation on the war — "this is not an era of war" — dates to 2022
- In Warsaw, Jaishankar's counterpart was Poland's Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Radosław Sikorski; in Kyiv, Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha
- The G7-EU price cap on Russian seaborne crude has been in effect since December 2022; India, as a non-G7 state, is not directly bound by it