MODI TELLS PUTIN: THE ENDLESS WAR MUST END
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi delivered an unusually direct message to Vladimir Putin during their meeting in Bishkek: every additional day of war pushes humanity backward.
“We need to move from endless war to an end to the war,” Modi said, declaring that peace is not merely India’s preference—it is “the call of humanity.”
This message did not come from NATO or the European Union. It came from the leader of India—one of Russia’s most important economic partners, a major buyer of Russian oil and a country whose government continues to maintain close relations with Moscow.
That makes Modi’s words significant. India has not broken with Russia or condemned the invasion in the language Ukraine would want. Yet even the partners Putin calls friends increasingly understand that his endless war threatens international stability, drains economies and offers no credible destination beyond further destruction.
Putin appears to have chosen escalation instead. His army is exhausted, its equipment and logistics are being relentlessly consumed, and its offensives continue producing limited territorial gains at an enormous human cost. The Kremlin now appears to hope that another influx of mobilized soldiers will provide the momentum its existing forces can no longer generate
Russia has historically relied upon numbers to overcome battlefield losses. But this is the 21st century. Every concentration of troops can be observed, every supply route can be hunted, and fresh recruits cannot instantly replace experienced soldiers, commanders or destroyed equipment.
Putin can send more men, but will greater numbers be enough against drones, precision weapons and a Ukrainian military that has spent years learning how to dismantle massed Russian assaults?
Modi is offering Putin a path toward peace. Putin appears determined to answer with another generation of Russians sent into the same killing fields.