Ambassador of Ukraine Dr. Oleksandr Polishchuk gave an interview to Rudroneel Ghosh, The Times of India. The interview was published on November 16, 2023. To read the full interview press here.

Key messages:

• The talks on practical implementation of Ukraine’s Peace Formula presented by the President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskyy, become regular. The number of participants in these consultations is constantly growing. In June, there were 15 in Copenhagen, 44 in Jeddah in August, and finally 66 in Malta in October. We highly appreciate India’s active participation and consultations in these discussions and we count that New Delhi will continue to support this practice.
• Ukraine remains in the main loop of the international community. During the meeting last week in the format of 2+2 Dialogue between India and the US in New Delhi where Ukraine featured prominently in the discussions. Also, Minister of External Affairs of India Dr. S Jaishankar discussed the Ukraine issue with the newly-appointed foreign secretary of UK David Cameron.
• Recently the head of the office of the President of Ukraine, Andriy Yermak, conducted consultations with US secretary of state Antony Blinken, which was a precursor to President Biden’s meeting with his Chinese President Xi. The part of this meeting will be devoted to discussing the issue of achieving peace in Ukraine.
• Ukraine respects traditional neutral position of India. We would be even more grateful if India would more decisively declare its support for Ukraine in the international arena and show more activity to end the war and achieve just and lasting peace in Ukraine. Because this would be commensurate with India’s growing role in the global arena and as the voice of the Global South. Plus, if India aspires to a permanent seat in the UNSC, it has to start taking clear positions on global issues. The position of neutrality does not work in this case.
• The EU will start consultations on Ukraine's accession to the EU in March 2024. This became possible thanks to the European Commission's high assessment of the results of reforms in Ukraine, which, I want to emphasize, are taking place in the conditions of military aggression against our country.
• India can help rebuild Ukraine. The reconstruction of Ukraine will be the biggest development project in Europe. We welcome relevant Indian companies to be part of this massive reconstruction effort that is expected to run into billions of dollars. For Indian investors, Ukraine today is very attractive because it will soon be a part of the EU. So Ukraine can be the gateway to the EU for Indian companies. So Indian businesses are welcome to invest in Ukraine right now and the Ukrainian government is willing to support them and of course insure their businesses.
• Regarding the stalemate or deadlock. I, like all Ukrainians, am convinced of our victory. Because Good always defeats Evil. I believe that the time will come and Ukraine will have its own Diwali celebration. Although the path to victory is certainly difficult. Only by joint efforts in the political, diplomatic and military fields it is possible to achieve victory over a powerful enemy.
• Sanctions against Russia. Russia’s revenue is declining and they have witnessed a huge exodus of talent. The only way they are keeping the economy alive is through export of raw materials and energy. Of course, don’t expect immediate results with sanctions. But a couple of more years and Russia will face serious economic, humanitarian, social and demographic problems.
• We continue successfully implementing our global humanitarian initiative “Grain from Ukraine”, which was launched last year and on November 25 in Kyiv we will conduct the Second International Summit on Food Security. It is very important that we continue to negotiate with our partners and ensure the export of our food grains to countries that need it, especially to the countries of the Global South, in particular Africa. I hope that our Indian friends will take an active part in this Summit.
• Putin can weaponise everything, including sports. The philosophy behind the ancient Olympic games was to stop or pause war. But with Putin’s Russia you will see that when we had the Beijing Olympics in 2008, the same month the Russians started their aggression against Georgia. In 2014 when we had the Sochi Winter Olympics, the same month Putin started the aggression against Ukraine and occupied Crimea. And again during the Beijing Winter Olympics last year, the same month Putin started the full-scale invasion of Ukraine.
• When it comes to Russian athletes, you must remember that the Russian Olympic team is mainly composed of those athletes who are serving in the Russian army or Russian Guard. Many of these Russian athletes have also publicly demonstrated their support for the war against Ukraine. Therefore, we believe these athletes should be banned. We are pleased with the International Olympic Committee recently suspending the Russian Olympic Committee.
• Historically Ukraine and India have a strong bilateral link in the military technical sphere. We will be glad to work jointly, in particular under Prime Minister Modi’s initiative “Make in India”.  Despite the war, we have the capacity to continue such cooperation.
• We are also interested in extending our cooperation with India in the area of children’s welfare in relation to Ukrainian children who were kidnapped by the Russians. India can play a vital role in negotiations with Russia regarding bringing Ukrainian kids back home. Our First Lady has a couple of charity projects in which India could collaborate – rebuilding hospitals in Izium and supporting kids in their education, which has been interrupted due to the war by providing devices for online education.
• We need more people-to-people connections between Ukraine and India. There can be many more cultural exchanges, bilateral experts’ and academia researches. This is important to break the perception among many people who equate Ukraine with the Soviet Union. Ukraine today is nothing like the Soviet Union. We are fighting for our sovereignty just like India fought for its freedom from colonialism.
• We are deeply grateful to the government and the people of India for the humanitarian aid. We received 14 consignments so far. We believe that India can still help us in some additional domains like in the supply of generators and transformers, which Ukraine will definitely need this winter as Russia continues to target out critical infrastructure.