Ukraine President Zelensky dials PM Modi

Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky on Monday said he had a telephonic conversation with Prime Minister Narendra Modi and requested him to participate in the implementation of the ‘peace formula’ on the laid out by him during last month’s summit in Indonesia’s Bali.

“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,” tweeted Zelensky.

Last month, too, the two leaders held a telephonic conversation to discuss the current situation in Ukraine. PM Modi has also held regular discussions with Russian President Vladimir Putin.

The 2023 G20 summit will take place in Delhi on September 9 and 10.

In October, Zelensky said that Kyiv will not conduct negotiations with Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Reacting to the referendum in four Russian-occupied areas of Ukraine — Luhansk, Donetsk, Zaporizhzhia and Kherson, Zelenskyy noted that all the aggressor’s decisions aimed at attempting illegal annexation of Ukrainian territories are null and void and do not change reality.

Zelenskyy emphasised that under such conditions, Ukraine will not conduct any negotiations with the current President of the Russian Federation, and noted that our state has always been committed to a peaceful settlement Earlier on Monday, Ukraine called for Russia to be removed from the United Nations, where Moscow can veto any resolution as a permanent member of the Security Council.

“Ukraine calls on the member states of the UN… to deprive the Russian Federation of its status as a permanent member of the UN Security Council and to exclude it from the UN as a whole,” the foreign ministry said in a statement.

The statement said Russia “illegally occupies the seat of the USSR in the UN Security Council”, since the break-up of the Soviet Union in 1991.

Meanwhile, three Russian servicemen were killed on Monday after a Ukrainian drone was shot down by air defence systems as it approached a military airfield in Saratov Oblast, deep inside Russian territory, according to Russian state news agencies, citing the defence ministry.

The incident took place in the western port city of Engels, more than 800 kilometres  southeast of Moscow, located on the Volga River. It is the second such attempted attack on the city, which houses the Engels-2 military airfield, a strategic bomber airbase, this month, reported CNN.