Ukraine crisis: India calls for diplomatic dialogue at UNSC; Russia welcomes 'balanced' approach

New Delhi, February 18

While tensions around Ukraine continued to persist, Russia has welcomed India’s balanced approach at the UN Security Council where it called for a diplomatic dialogue to de-escalate the situation.

“India’s interest is in finding a solution that can provide for immediate de-escalation of tensions taking into account the legitimate security interests of all countries and aimed towards securing long-term peace and stability in the region and beyond,’’ said India’s Permanent Representative T.S. Tirumurti at the UNSC on Thursday while acknowledging that India has been in touch with all concerned parties.

“We welcome India’s balanced, principled and independent approach,’’ the Russian embassy in India tweeted.

The UNSC discussion saw high-level representation from both protagonists, the US and Russia. US Secretary of State Antony claimed to be in possession of Russian battle plans that will begin with false flag events and jamming of communications followed by military push to Kiev.

Russia’s Deputy Foreign Minister Sergey Vershinin called Blinken’s scenario “baseless and dangerous because they add tension to the already tense atmosphere’’.

At UNSC, Tirumurti noted that there were more than 20,000 Indians living and studying in various parts of Ukraine.

When the issue was last taken up at UNSC on February 1, India had sided with Russia by abstaining from voting on a US-backed proposal to discuss Ukraine.

While Blinken and Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov are planning to meet next week in a neutral country, Ukrainian government forces and its Russian-backed rebels traded fresh accusations of shelling and other ceasefire violations. Ukraine’s Defence Ministry claimed to have recorded 60 ceasefire violations over the past 24 hours while Moscow claimed that Ukrainians neo-Nazis were firing mortars into Russian majority provinces of Donetsk and Lugansk.