The first signs of the possibility of inclusive and direct talks towards a resolution of the Ukraine war came in the Russian President Vladimir Putin’s comments last week in Vladivostok when he said China, Brazil and India will be interested to provide a helping hand in trying to bring about peace.
India’s NSA Ajit Doval will be travelling to Moscow to take this breakthrough of talk of peace further with a peace plan showcasing PM Narendra Modi’s readiness to play the mediator in the Ukraine war that has raged for 30 months without an end in sight.
India and China have a key role to play in resolving the conflict, says Italian PM Giorgia Meloni and her words on the subject carry some weight as Europe has far greater stakes in the war ending. Only when peace returns can Europe’s energy resources, mostly imported from Russia, find a measure of security as the sanctions on buying energy from Moscow would have to end too.
Europe must seize the mood of the moment when peace in Ukraine is being talked about to get Mr Volodymyr Zelenskyy to the table. How the US views the war in Europe is a riddle as currently its aid to Ukraine to fight may have helped the military-industrial complex much more thanks to the billions of dollars poured in to buy armaments, missiles and planes.
It is not certain that Ukraine’s PM Zelenskyy views India’s peacemaker initiative without scepticism as he has had an axe to grind over the lack of support from India in UN resolutions condemning Russia’s invasion and the continued bombing of his country.
It might have been a brilliant war strategy on the part of Ukraine to take some of Russia’s land in the Kursk province, but it cannot be much of a bargaining chip if talks are not initiated soon as Russia’s counter in the Donbas is inflicting more territorial losses now.
Both countries need no reminding that peace is always the desirable ideal, no matter the history of the region. It appears the mediators named by Mr Putin have the best chance of convince him into calling it off as Ukraine and its Western allies find themselves in a stalemate with Russia in a sharply bipolar world.
