Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Russian President Vladimir Putin met in Moscow on Tuesday.
Their meeting comes as Ukraine holds a national day of mourning over airstrikes that killed 31 people across Ukraine and injured 154, including many at a children's hospital in Kyiv.
In televised remarks during the meeting, Modi said that the death of children was "unbearable," and that an end to conflict in Ukraine "cannot be found on the
battlefield ... we have to find peace through talks."
Modi also noted that Russian manufacturing in India was giving young people jobs, and said he expected their ties to "deepen" in the coming years.
Speaking before Modi, Putin praised the " particularly privileged strategic partnership," between Russia and India, and thanked the prime minister for "the attention you are paying to the most acute problems, including trying to find ways to resolve the Ukrainian crisis, above all by peaceful means, of course."
The pair had embraced before a state dinner on Monday evening. Russian state news agency TASS said that Putin was "very happy" to see his "dear friend."
The meeting is the first state visit between India and Russia — though the two countries have ties going back to the Cold War — since the invasion of Ukraine in 2022.
US raises concerns about Moscow-Delhi relationship
The US, a staunch ally of New Delhi and Kyiv, raised concerns about the visit late on Monday.
"And so we would hope (that) India and any other country when they engage with Russia would make clear that Russia should respect the UN Charter, should respect Ukraine's sovereignty and territorial integrity," a state department spokesman told reporters.
A Modi spokesman said last week that the prime minister's top priorities for the meeting would be procuring the discharge of Indian citizens who were "misled" into fighting in Ukraine and addressing India's trade imbalance with Russia. Currently, New Delhi purchases 60% of its weapons and 40% of its oil from Moscow.
