Jaishankar says India in touch with Kyiv, Moscow to help end war

Warsaw,UPDATED: Sep 4, 2026 22:36 IST

External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar said in Warsaw on Friday that India has been in continuous touch with both Ukraine and Russia and is trying to see if there are ideas and suggestions that can be developed in a way that contributes to the mitigation, and ideally the cessation, of the conflict.

Jaishankar made the remarks after meeting Poland's Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Radosaw Sikorski, a day after visiting Kyiv for talks with Ukraine's top leadership. He also reiterated India's position that the war must end and that efforts should focus on dialogue, diplomacy and negotiation.

Addressing a joint press meet with Sikorski, Jaishankar said he discussed complex global challenges with his Polish counterpart, including supply chain resilience and food, fuel and fertiliser security. "The Deputy Prime Minister and I also understandably discussed some major global and regional issues, notable among them is the war in Ukraine, now in its fifth year... I myself have just come here from Kyiv," he said.

Replying to a question, Jaishankar said India has been in continuous touch with both sides. "What we are trying to do is to see if there are ideas and suggestions which can be developed in some way in which they will contribute to the mitigation, ideally, the cessation of the conflict," he added.

A day earlier in Ukraine, Jaishankar had said India was ready to extend "any help in any manner" to end the Ukraine-Russia war. He met President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha in Kyiv on Thursday.

After the talks, Zelenskyy said he was "grateful to India for its commitment to ending this unjust war". Jaishankar had also said, "This certainly must not be a time of war. Peace is needed. This is India's clear position," and expressed hope that other major world powers would also take a clear stance that the war must end and that a reliable peace must be achieved.

On Friday, Jaishankar repeated that India believes endless war must give way to an end to war. "These are wars without winners. Every additional day means more death, more destruction, more loss to the parties themselves, and more cost to the rest of the world," he said in Warsaw. He recalled that Prime Minister Narendra Modi had voiced this concern publicly in recent days.

He said the focus must be on promoting talks. "Our efforts must therefore focus on promoting dialogue and diplomacy. We must each do what we can in whichever way we believe could be most effective and support the efforts of others to bring this conflict to an end. This is India's strong conviction, and we are acting on it," he added.

On India's purchases of Russian oil, Jaishankar said the issue was the conflict and that its solution lay in negotiations, not trade. "This war is not going to end... not because somebody chose to buy or not buy oil or alumina or fertilisers or metals and minerals. It will end when there is diplomacy, when there is dialogue and when there is negotiation. So, I think let's diagnose the problem right," he said. Jaishankar's remarks in Warsaw came after his Kyiv visit and underlined India's position that the conflict can only be addressed through dialogue and diplomacy.

With PTI Inputs

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