It was a real surprise, when, in the third week of July 2024, both the Indian and Ukrainian media released the news, though without official confirmation, that Prime Minister Narendra Modi plans to visit Ukraine. More so, after the bear hug optics with Russian President Putin, and Ukrainian President Zelenskyy’s sharp condemnation of PM Modi’s trip to Moscow.
A day before this news was out, members of the Indian diaspora spoke about an appeal to the PM to visit Ukraine at a regular online meeting platform “Ukraine and South Asia: Open Dialogues”. Devastated by India’s damaged image, especially in the light of Russian missiles hitting Ukraine on the very day our PM was in Moscow meeting Putin, their frustration was well founded. Out of the 38 missiles fired, 30 were shot down causing at least 41 casualties and 170 injured. A Kh-101/cruise missile targeted the largest children’s hospital “Okhmatdyt” in the heart of Kyiv; debris from the shot-down missiles fell in several other places.
Dr. Aloke Bansal, an orthopaedic surgeon, winner of the Presidential Order ‘Honored Doctor of Ukraine’, recalled, how on 8 July, he finished a small operation, when the alert siren sounded; how he cried, knowing his colleagues were operating on children when the missile hit. The dialysis and cancer units were evacuated and no casualties but the doctor on duty was killed. Six doctors were killed on that day in Ukraine.
In another part of Kyiv, several perished when part of a residential building, hit by debris, collapsed, within 300 meters from the Indian Embassy’s Chancery. In Kyiv alone, 27 people were killed, including three children, and 82 were wounded. Dr. Bansal publicly appealed to the PM to visit Kyiv.
Contrasting the image of Putin welcoming Modi, who would ever forget the photo of Indian medical students in front of the ruined Okhmatdyt hospital, helping people? And the video that went viral of Artem with his artificial leg, standing and clearing the rubbles with volunteers? Artem, a former jujitsu champion, lost his leg in the war. The artificial leg was supplied by Parashar Industries, founded by Nagender Parashar, an Indian, who set up his prosthetics manufacturing and rehabilitation company some 15 years back. Parashar has become a legend for putting people back on track, old or young, male or female and military or civil, catering to their prosthetic needs.
