Tag: Volodymyr Zelenskyy

  • PM Modi, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy hold talks over phone 

    By PTI

    NEW DELHI: Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy on Monday said he held a telephonic conversation with Prime Minister Narendra Modi and that he counted on India’s participation for the implementation of his peace formula.

    Zelenskyy said he also wished Modi for a successful G20 presidency of India.

    “I had a phone call with @PMOIndia Narendra Modi and wished a successful #G20 presidency. It was on this platform that I announced the peace formula and now I count on India’s participation in its implementation. I also thanked for humanitarian aid and support in the UN,” the Ukrainian president said in a tweet.

    I had a phone call with @PMOIndia Narendra Modi and wished a successful #G20 presidency. It was on this platform that I announced the peace formula and now I count on India’s participation in its implementation. I also thanked for humanitarian aid and support in the UN.
    — Володимир Зеленський (@ZelenskyyUa) December 26, 2022
    There were no immediate details from the Indian side.

    Since the Ukraine conflict began in February, Modi spoke to Russian President Vladimir Putin as well as Zelenskyy a number of times.

    In a phone conversation with Zelenskyy on October 4, Modi said there can be “no military solution” and that India is ready to contribute to any peace efforts.

    India is yet to condemn the Russian invasion of Ukraine and has been maintaining that the crisis must be resolved through diplomacy and dialogue.

    NEW DELHI: Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy on Monday said he held a telephonic conversation with Prime Minister Narendra Modi and that he counted on India’s participation for the implementation of his peace formula.

    Zelenskyy said he also wished Modi for a successful G20 presidency of India.

    “I had a phone call with @PMOIndia Narendra Modi and wished a successful #G20 presidency. It was on this platform that I announced the peace formula and now I count on India’s participation in its implementation. I also thanked for humanitarian aid and support in the UN,” the Ukrainian president said in a tweet.

    I had a phone call with @PMOIndia Narendra Modi and wished a successful #G20 presidency. It was on this platform that I announced the peace formula and now I count on India’s participation in its implementation. I also thanked for humanitarian aid and support in the UN.
    — Володимир Зеленський (@ZelenskyyUa) December 26, 2022
    There were no immediate details from the Indian side.

    Since the Ukraine conflict began in February, Modi spoke to Russian President Vladimir Putin as well as Zelenskyy a number of times.

    In a phone conversation with Zelenskyy on October 4, Modi said there can be “no military solution” and that India is ready to contribute to any peace efforts.

    India is yet to condemn the Russian invasion of Ukraine and has been maintaining that the crisis must be resolved through diplomacy and dialogue.

  • Modi, Zelenskyy discuss Ukraine conflict; PM says there can be ‘no military solution’

    By PTI

    NEW DELHI: Prime Minister Narendra Modi spoke with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy on Tuesday and asserted that there can be no military solution to the Ukraine conflict, while also underlining that endangerment of nuclear facilities could have catastrophic consequences.

    During their telephonic conversation, Modi and Zelenskyy discussed the ongoing conflict in Ukraine and the prime minister reiterated his call for an early cessation of hostilities and the need to pursue the path of dialogue and diplomacy, according to a statement issued by the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) here.

    Modi expressed his firm conviction that there can be no military solution to the conflict and conveyed India’s readiness to contribute to any peace efforts, the statement said.

    He also reiterated the importance of respecting the UN Charter, International Law, and the sovereignty and territorial integrity of all states.

    During his conversation with the Ukrainian president, Modi emphasised the importance India attaches to the safety and security of nuclear installations, including in Ukraine.

    The prime minister underlined that endangerment of nuclear facilities could have far-reaching and catastrophic consequences for public health and the environment, the statement said.

    The two leaders also touched upon important areas of bilateral cooperation, following up on their last meeting in Glasgow in November 2021, it said.

    NEW DELHI: Prime Minister Narendra Modi spoke with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy on Tuesday and asserted that there can be no military solution to the Ukraine conflict, while also underlining that endangerment of nuclear facilities could have catastrophic consequences.

    During their telephonic conversation, Modi and Zelenskyy discussed the ongoing conflict in Ukraine and the prime minister reiterated his call for an early cessation of hostilities and the need to pursue the path of dialogue and diplomacy, according to a statement issued by the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) here.

    Modi expressed his firm conviction that there can be no military solution to the conflict and conveyed India’s readiness to contribute to any peace efforts, the statement said.

    He also reiterated the importance of respecting the UN Charter, International Law, and the sovereignty and territorial integrity of all states.

    During his conversation with the Ukrainian president, Modi emphasised the importance India attaches to the safety and security of nuclear installations, including in Ukraine.

    The prime minister underlined that endangerment of nuclear facilities could have far-reaching and catastrophic consequences for public health and the environment, the statement said.

    The two leaders also touched upon important areas of bilateral cooperation, following up on their last meeting in Glasgow in November 2021, it said.

  • Ukraine official: Zelenskyy meets top-level US delegation

    By PTI

    KYIV: The U.S. secretaries of state and defense met Sunday night with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in the highest-level visit to the country’s capital by an American delegation since the start of Russia’s invasion.

    The meeting with U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken and U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin, which was confirmed by a senior Ukrainian official, came as Ukraine pressed the West for more powerful weapons against Russia’s campaign in the Donbas region of eastern Ukraine, where Moscow’s forces sought to dislodge the last Ukrainian troops in the battered port of Mariupol.

    “Yes, they’re meeting with the president. Let’s hope something will be decided on further help,” Ukrainian presidential adviser Oleksiy Arestovych told Russian lawyer and activist Mark Feygin on his YouTube show “Feygin Live.” The United States has not yet commented.

    Before the session with Blinken and Austin, Zelenskyy said he was looking for the Americans to produce results, both in arms and security guarantees.

    “You can’t come to us empty-handed today, and we are expecting not just presents or some kind of cakes, we are expecting specific things and specific weapons,” he said.

    Zelenskyy’s last face-to-face meeting with a top U.S. official was Feb. 19 in Munich with Vice President Kamala Harris, five days before Russia’s invasion.

    While the West has funneled military equipment to Ukraine, Zelenskyy has stressed repeatedly that his country needs more heavy weapons, including long-range air defense systems and warplanes.

    Zelenskyy’s meeting with U.S. officials took place as Ukrainians and Russians observed Orthodox Easter.

    Speaking from Kyiv’s ancient St. Sophia Cathedral, Zelenskyy, who is Jewish, highlighted its significance to a nation wracked by nearly two months of war.

    “The great holiday today gives us great hope and unwavering faith that light will overcome darkness, good will overcome evil, life will overcome death, and therefore Ukraine will surely win!” he said.

    Still, the war cast a shadow over celebrations. In the northern village of Ivanivka, where Russian tanks still littered the roads, Olena Koptyl said “the Easter holiday doesn’t bring any joy. I’m crying a lot. We cannot forget how we lived.” The Russian military reported hitting 423 Ukrainian targets overnight, including fortified positions and troop concentrations, while its warplanes destroyed 26 Ukrainian military sites, including an explosives factory and several artillery depots.

    Since failing to capture Kyiv, the Russians have aimed to gain full control over the eastern industrial heartland, where Moscow-backed separatists controlled some territory before the war.

    Russian forces launched fresh airstrikes on a Mariupol steel plant where an estimated 1,000 civilians are sheltering along with about 2,000 Ukrainian fighters.

    The Azovstal steel mill where the defenders are holed up is the last corner of resistance in the city, otherwise occupied by the Russians.

    Zelenskyy said he stressed the need to evacuate civilians from Mariupol, including from the steel plant, in a Sunday call with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who is scheduled to speak later with Russian leader Vladimir Putin.

    Arestovych, the Zelenskyy adviser, said Ukraine has proposed holding talks with Russia next to the sprawling steel mill.

    Arestovych said on the Telegram messaging app that Russia has not responded to the proposal that would include establishing humanitarian corridors and the exchange of Russian war prisoners for the fighters still in the plant.

    U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres is scheduled to travel to Turkey on Monday and then Moscow and Kyiv.

    Zelenskyy said it was a mistake for Guterres to visit Russia before Ukraine. “Why? To hand over signals from Russia? What should we look for?” Zelenskyy said Saturday.

    “There are no corpses scattered on the Kutuzovsky Prospect,” he said, referring to one of Moscow’s main avenues.

    Mariupol has endured fierce fighting since the start of the war because of its location on the Sea of Azov.

    Its capture would deprive Ukraine of a vital port, free up Russian troops to fight elsewhere, and allow Moscow to establish a land corridor to the Crimean Peninsula, which it seized from Ukraine in 2014.

    More than 100,000 people, down from a prewar population of about 430,000, are believed to remain in Mariupol with scant food, water or heat.

    Ukrainian authorities estimate over 20,000 civilians have been killed. Recent satellite images showed what appeared to be mass graves to the west and east of Mariupol.

    Children in an underground bunker were seen receiving Easter presents in a video released Sunday by the far-right Azov Battalion, which is among the Ukrainian forces at the steel plant in Mariupol.

    The group’s deputy commander, Sviatoslav Palamar, said the video was shot at the plant.

    One toddler is seen wearing homemade diapers made of cellophane and people are seen hanging laundry on makeshift hangers.

    “Please help us,” one woman in the video said through tears, appealing to world leaders. “We want to live in our city, in our country. We are tired of these bombings, constant air strikes on our land. How much longer will this continue?” Mykhailo Podolyak, another presidential adviser, tweeted that the Russian military was attacking the plant with heavy bombs and artillery while accumulating forces and equipment for a direct assault.

    Zelenskyy on Saturday accused Russians of committing war crimes by killing civilians and of setting up “filtration camps” near Mariupol for people trying to leave the city.

    He said the Ukrainians, many of them children, are then sent to areas under Russian occupation or to Russia itself, often as far as Siberia or the Far East. The claims could not be independently verified.

    But they were repeated by Ukrainian lawmaker Yevheniya Kravchuk on ABC’s “This Week.” “They have pulled these people from Mariupol — they are put to filtration camps…it’s sort of something that can’t be happening in the 21st century,” Kravchuk said.

    Zelenskyy also claimed that intercepted communications recorded Russian troops discussing “how they conceal the traces of their crimes” in Mariupol.

    And he highlighted the death of a 3-month old girl in a Russian missile strike Saturday on the Black Sea port of Odesa.

    The baby was among eight people killed when Russia fired cruise missiles at Odesa, Ukrainian officials said.

    Ukrainian news agency UNIAN, citing social media, reported that the infant’s mother, Valeria Glodan, and grandmother also died when a missile hit a residential area. Zelenskyy promised to find and punish those responsible.

    “The war started when this baby was 1 month old,” Zelenskyy said. “Can you imagine what is happening? They are filthy scum; there are no other words for it.” For the Donbas offensive, Russia has reassembled troops who fought around Kyiv and in northern Ukraine.

    The British Ministry of Defense said Ukrainian forces had repelled numerous assaults in the past week and “inflicted significant cost on Russian forces.” The spiritual leaders of the world’s Orthodox Christians and Roman Catholics appealed for relief for Ukraine’s suffering population.

    From Istanbul, Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew I said a “human tragedy” was unfolding.

    Bartholomew, considered the first among his Eastern Orthodox patriarch equals, cited in particular the thousands of people surrounded in Mariupol, civilians, among them the wounded, the elderly, women and many children.

    “Pope Francis, speaking from a window overlooking St. Peter’s Square, renewed his call for an Easter truce, calling it ‘a minimal and tangible sign of a desire for peace.”

  • Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s ‘Servant of the People’ series returns to Netflix

    By ANI

    WASHINGTON: Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s series ‘Servant of the People’, which inspired him to enter into politics, is back for streaming on Netflix in the US. According to The Hollywood Reporter, the satirical series originally streamed on Netflix from 2017 to 2021.

    ‘Servant of the People’ follows a teacher (Zelenskyy) who unexpectedly becomes president after a rant against corruption goes viral on social media.

    The show ran for three seasons and ended when Zelenskyy decided to run for President of Ukraine in 2019 under the banner of a new political party floated by him ‘Servant of the People’.

    After much demand from the public due to ongoing Russia’s military operations in Ukraine and the heroism of Zelenskyy in defending his country, Netflix is currently streaming the series for its US subscribers.

    Russia launched military operations in Ukraine on February 24 which was condemned by the Western nations. Zelenskyy, recently addressed the US Congress, virtually. The President called on the United States to do more to help Ukraine in its “darkest time”, according to a media report.

    “In the darkest time for our country, for the whole Europe, I call on you to do more. New packages of sanctions are needed, constantly, every week until the Russian military machine stops. Restrictions are needed for everyone on whom this unjust regime is based,” CNN quoted Zelenskyy as saying.

    The Ukrainian President received a standing ovation from the US lawmakers both at the beginning and the conclusion of his address. 

  • 694 Indian students were in Sumy last night, all have left for Poltava in buses: Hardeep Singh Puri

    By PTI

    NEW DELHI: Union minister Hardeep Singh Puri on Tuesday confirmed that the evacuation process for Indian students stranded in the war-torn Ukrainian city of Sumy has started and they are being been taken in buses to Poltava.

    “Last night, I checked with the control room, 694 Indian students were remaining in Sumy. Today, they have all left in buses for Poltava,” Puri told reporters here.

    Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Monday discussed with Russian President Vladimir Putin and Ukrainian leader Volodymyr Zelenskyy ways to start the stalled evacuation of Indian students from Ukraine’s besieged Sumy city pummelled by the invading Russian forces.

    India has brought back over 17,100 of its nationals from Ukraine so far while Indian students remained stuck in the northeastern city of Sumy with their evacuation dependent on the facilitation of a safe passage by Russian and Ukrainian authorities.

  • Sean Penn opens up about his meeting with Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy

    By ANI

    WASHINGTON: Academy Award-winning actor Sean Penn, who was in Ukraine to film a documentary on Russia’s conflict with the neighbouring country, recently opened up about his experience witnessing the situation of people amid the crisis — especially while joining the fleeing Ukrainians on the exodus across the Polish border.

    In a televised interview with CNN’s Anderson Cooper, Sean said that he and his team members had “the luxury of being able to abandon a rented vehicle on the side of the road” but that “a startling thing” to him was just how many women and children were attempting to make their way across the border, The Hollywood Reporter reported.

    He mentioned some were travelling in groups, others alone, with men “dropping them off and returning because we know that from 18 to 60, men are not to leave” in order to aid in the country’s resistance against Russia.

    Sean also spoke about meeting Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and how his courage has impressed him.

    “I don’t know if he knew that he was born for this, but it was clear I was in the presence of something. And again, I think reflected of so many Ukrainians, that was new to the modern world in terms of courage and dignity, and love that comes out of the man and the way he has unified that country,” he said.

    The conflict began escalating after Russian President Vladimir Putin on February 24 announced the military operation in Ukraine and warned other countries that any attempt to interfere with the Russian action would lead to “consequences they have never seen”, and since then thousands of Ukrainians, both civilians and troops, have been killed.