India's Prime Minister Narendra Modi has urged Russian President Vladimir Putin to halt the "endless" Ukraine war for the sake of humanity in a significant diplomatic intervention. "Every day that the war continues, humanity is, in effect, set back a step," Modi said during a meeting on Monday on the sidelines of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) summit in Kyrgyzstan. "We need to move from endless war to an end to the war, to a cessation of hostilities," he added.
Since Putin launched the war in February 2022, India has become Russia's second-largest customer of fossil fuels, as it benefitted from energy discounts offered by Moscow after sanctions dried up western markets. Modi has not overtly criticized Putin's aggression in Ukraine, but his comments will carry weight given India's importance as a key market for Russia. This is a developing story.
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