Indian proposal for Ukraine truce ‘most comprehensive’, says Ukrainian foreign minister Andrii Sybiha

Ukraine has received ceasefire proposals from four countries, including one from India that is the “most comprehensive”, Ukrainian foreign minister Andrii Sybiha has said.

The other proposals were from Turkey, Egypt and the US, and Ukraine is ready for various options for a truce with Russia, Sybiha told reporters in Kyiv on Friday, according to a report by European Pravda.

Also read: Ukraine attacks major Russian refinery and oil pipeline hub with drones in Samara region

Ukraine is ready to consider different ceasefire formats, including along the front lines, but only if the truce covers attacks on energy and port infrastructure and the situation in the Black Sea, he said.

‘India’s proposal most comprehensive'

“We have four proposals. The most comprehensive is India’s proposal. We are ready for an energy and Black Sea truce, but only in this combination,” Sybiha said. “This [should be] a complete energy truce, a stop to attacks on all energy facilities, including port infrastructure.”

Sybiha said similar proposals have been made by Turkey and Egypt, which proposed a truce in the Black Sea to restore grain exports from Ukraine.

The fourth proposal by the US insists that Ukraine and Russia agree on an energy truce, he said. The US proposal was discussed during a meeting between President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and President Donald Trump.

Also read: Russia-Ukraine tensions rising? Putin warns of using ‘all types of weapons’ if Kaliningrad attacked

“In general, we believe a truce could be one of the results of a meeting between President Zelensky and [Russian President Vladimir] Putin. We are ready for different formats of a truce, including an unconditional one along the line of contact,” Sybiha said.

Sybiha did not provide further details and it could not immediately be ascertained when India had made the proposal. There was no comment on the matter from Indian officials.

India's emphasis on ending the war

The Indian side has emphasised that it remains in touch with Russia and Ukraine and is ready to assist in ending the war, which New Delhi has repeatedly said has impacted food, fuel and fertiliser security, especially for the Global South.

While addressing the annual meeting of the Valdai Discussion Club in Moscow on Thursday, Putin said Prime Minister Narendra Modi consistently raises the question of ending the conflict in Ukraine every time they meet. “He takes a keen interest in the matter and has excellent ideas aimed at finding mutually acceptable…solutions. In this sense, [Modi] certainly maintains a neutral position while remaining committed to seeing the conflict end,” Putin said.

“We are also grateful to the Prime Minister for his ideas – I will not go into details now – and for his commitment to resolving this conflict, among others, peacefully and as quickly as possible,” he said.

Modi met Putin on the margins of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) Summit in Kyrgyzstan in August and called for a shift from endless war to the end of war. The Ukraine conflict figured again in a meeting between Modi and Putin ahead of the Brics Summit in New Delhi last month. Modi last met Zelensky on the margins of the G7 Summit in France in June.

External affairs minister S Jaishankar travelled to Kyiv in early September, days after the meeting between Modi and Putin in Kyrgyzstan, and emphasised that the conflict cannot be resolved on the battlefield and that India stands ready to help in all efforts to end the war in Ukraine.