India's Modi Seeks to Restore Western Ties with Historic Kyiv Visit. ( Source - ANI ) Six weeks after embracing Vladimir Putin in Moscow and calling the Russian president his "dear friend," even as Russian forces bombed a children's hospital in Ukraine, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi made a historic visit to Kyiv. On Friday, August 23, Modi was seen embracing Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky outside the presidential palace, a stark contrast to his previous interaction with Putin. Modi's arrival in Ukraine, via a train from Poland where he spent two days with his Polish counterpart Donald Tusk, marks the first visit by an Indian head of government to Ukraine since its independence in 1991. While historic in nature, this visit is also a calculated move to repair the...