The Deputy Chief of the Russian embassy in India, Roman Babushkin, has said that Russia expects India's support at the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) when the draft resolution is put up for voting on Friday, 25 February, PTI reported.
"We highly appreciate India's deep understanding of the current situation as well as the reasons that led to it. We expect India to support Russia at the UN Security Council," Babushkin affirmed.
The draft resolution in the UNSC is believed to slam the Russian military action in Ukraine in the harshest of terms, and will be up for voting on the evening of Friday, 25 February.
Babushkin also praised India's stance on the crisis, referring to the comments made my the Minister for External Affairs, S Jaishankar, wherein he had said that the situation in Ukraine has its roots in the post-Soviet politics and the expansion of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO).
"India's position has been very balanced and independent. We appreciate it and we continue to expect India's support in sync with the special and privileged strategic partnership between the two countries," Babushkin told PTI.
The Foreign Secretary Harsh Vardhan Shringla, in a media briefing on Thursday, 24 February, said that India's stance was undecided, and was contingent on the final version of the draft.
"I am told that it would undergo considerable changes. We will wait to see the shape that the resolution takes before we can pronounce ourselves and the position that we will take on the issue," he told the media.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi spoke with Russian President Vladimir Putin on the night of Thursday, 24 February, calling for an immediate end to the violence, and the necessity to find a diplomatic gateway through the crisis.
S Jaishankar, too, in his conversation with the Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, reiterated that the crisis could only be resolved via diplomacy and dialogue.
(With inputs from PTI.)
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