India urges ‘peaceful settlement of disputes’ between Ukraine, Russia at UN

India held onto its diplomatic stance on the Russian invasion of Ukraine and urged for “peaceful settlement of disputes” at the United Nations General Assembly’s latest emergency session on the conflict. 

TS Tirumurti, India’s Permanent Representative to United Nations addressed the diplomats. “India firmly believes that there is no other choice but to return to the path of diplomacy”, TS Tirumurti said in a statement as the Russia-Ukraine crisis shows no signs of slowing down.

Also Read: Russia-Ukraine conflict: Why India walks a diplomatic tightrope

The statement comes days after India refused to take sides while voting on a United Nations Security Council resolution that asked Moscow to withdraw all its troops from Ukraine and halt the invasion. While India abstained from voting on the resolution — along with China and UAE, Russia exercised its P5 powers and vetoed. 

TS Tirumurti also addressed India’s evacuation flights from Eastern Europe and said the country is doing “whatever it can to undertake immediate & urgent evacuation efforts of Indian nationals who are still stranded in Ukraine… this important humanitarian necessity must immediately be addressed”, according to reports from ANI.

“I would like to thank all neighbouring countries of Ukraine who have opened their borders for our citizens and given all facilities to our missions and their personnel”, the Indian diplomat added.

India previously explained that the neutral stance on the Russia-Ukraine situation has been presented to aid its evacuation efforts. “Our evacuation efforts have been adversely impacted by the complex and uncertain situation at the border crossings. Taking into consideration the totality of circumstances, we decided to abstain”, TS Tirumurti said, according to ANI.

According to reports from BBC, nearly 20,000 Indians are currently in Ukraine with most of them being students. 

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi has also spoken to Russia’s Vladimir Putin and Ukraine’s Volodymyr Zelensky and suggested a diplomatic approach.