What was Jaishankar doing in Kyiv this week, and does it signal a shift in India's position on the Ukraine war?

If you mean S. Jaishankar’s Kyiv visit on 29–30 August 2024, it was an official diplomatic trip—not a change of sides in the war. He met Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, and foreign minister Dmytro Kuleba to discuss the war, bilateral ties and possible cooperation.

The two countries also signed agreements covering areas including agriculture, medical products and cultural cooperation. Jaishankar reiterated India’s view that the conflict needs a peaceful resolution through dialogue, and that it cannot be settled on the battlefield.

The visit was notable because it came shortly after Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s trip to Moscow. But Jaishankar’s Kyiv visit did not amount to India endorsing Ukraine’s full position or abandoning its relationship with Russia. India continued to call for dialogue while maintaining its own diplomatic and economic ties with both countries.

So the clearest signal was more active engagement with Kyiv, not a wholesale shift in India’s position on Ukraine. The trip gave India another opportunity to discuss a peaceful resolution of the war and expand India-Ukraine cooperation agreements, while preserving India’s ties with Russia.