Kyiv, Ukraine:

Anton Yushyn spent four years studying Italian at university in Kyiv but the outbreak of war taught him the most valuable lesson of his student life: to prioritise what matters most.

When he enrolled at Kyiv National Linguistic University, Russia had not yet invaded, and his main concerns were socialising and passing exams to placate his parents.

“Maybe it’s not my goals that have changed but my values,” Yushyn, 22, told AFP on graduation day in Kyiv last month.

“It all used to be about parties and having fun. Now you need to spend more time with family and friends because they could be gone at any moment,” he said.

Thousands of Ukrainians graduating from around 300 universities this summer are entering into a society transformed by war — their futures in doubt with no end in sight to the fighting.

As Ukraine mobilises young men to replenish the army’s stretched ranks, male graduates face the prospect of being called up once they turn 25.

Higher education has not been immune from the conflict.

Dozens of teachers and professors have been fighting on the front lines and one-fifth of the sector’s facilities have been damaged or destroyed by Russian bombardments.

In December 2022, a missile landed just a few hundred metres from Yushyn’s campus.

To stay, or leave

But on graduation day, the mood at Yushyn’s alma mater was festive. Perfume hung in the hot summer air and staff congratulated joyful students for completing their studies in the face of historic turbulence.

Student life was barely back to normal after the Covid pandemic when Russia invaded in February 2022.

Universities suspended classes and Korean language student Nikoletta Shova was sent by her parents to stay with relatives in Italy.

The 22-year-old compared the “emotional” time abroad to being in a “stupor”, left wondering if she would ever be able to return.

Teaching restarted at most universities just a few weeks later — online or in person — when Russian forces were still on Kyiv’s outskirts.

Shova returned after three months away and was able to finish her degree in person while raising money for the war effort with classmates.

Now, with her diploma in hand, uncertainty had returned.

She was considering studying abroad — possibly marketing in the United States — but she was also open to finding a creative job at home.

Building a future in Ukraine despite the war was possible, she said, borrowing a popular phrase to underscore that it would take perseverance: “he who doesn’t take risks never drinks champagne”.

Jokes, memes

“So I’m being realistic but with a bit of positivity,” she said of her future.

Daryna Dekhtiar, 22, also a graduate of Kyiv National Linguistic University, went numb when Russia invaded.

“I didn’t cry at all. I just went into autopilot,” she said, but her friends had helped lift her spirits too, she added.

“We created our own memes, our jokes, it made it all much easier,” she recalled.

Dana Andriichuk, who already had secured an office job by graduation, was rushing to meet friends after the ceremony.

She didn’t want to dwell on the relative comfort of her student years or spend too much thinking about the prospect of a long war.

“I’m trying to avoid being a pessimist stuck in the past. I want to live now and not in the future, because we don’t know what will happen next,” she said.

“If the government encourages young people to stay and do everything possible to build a better future even in a state of war — and society becomes nationally conscious — then we can consider staying in the country,” she said.

– ‘Don’t run and hide’ –

Like thousands of other male graduates, Yushyn does not have as much freedom to choose. Authorities have barred men aged between 18 and 60 from leaving Ukraine.

Thousands have left illegally and dozens have died trying.

But Yushyn was resigned to life at home.

“Real men don’t run and hide. If the time comes and I get a summons, I won’t run from it,” he told AFP.

“I can wind myself up, cry, sit here trembling all I want, it won’t change the trajectory of the rocket,” he said.

Whatever the future holds, he said he was unlikely to use Italian, but was resolved to spending his time as best he could.

“I need to use it to the fullest.”

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

File picture of Russia’s President Vladimir Putin with Prime Minister Narendra Modi at the Kremlin in Moscow
| Photo Credit: via Reuters

Observing that India has a longstanding relationship with Russia, the U.S. has said that it has encouraged New Delhi to “utilise” that relationship with Moscow and urge President Vladimir Putin to end the “illegal war” against Ukraine.

These remarks were made by State Department Spokesperson Mathew Miller at his daily news conference on Monday.

“India has a longstanding relationship with Russia. I think that’s well-known. And we have encouraged India to utilise that relationship with Russia, that longstanding relationship and the unique position that they have, to urge President Putin to end his illegal war and to find a just peace, a lasting peace to this conflict; to tell Putin to respect the UN Charter, to respect Ukraine’s territorial integrity and sovereignty,” he said.

“That’s what we’ll continue to impress upon the Government of India, which is an important partner of ours when it comes to their relationship with Russia,” Mr. Miller said in response to a question.

Mr. Miller made similar remarks on July 9 soon after Prime Minister Narendra Modi left Russia.

Mr. Modi was in Russia for two days from July 8-9 for the 22nd India-Russia annual summit that has been watched closely by the West amidst the raging Ukraine conflict.

This was the Prime Minister’s first visit to Russia since the war started between Moscow and Kyiv in 2022.

During his talks with Mr. Putin on July 9, Prime Minister Modi told President Putin that a solution to the Ukraine conflict is not possible on the battlefield and peace efforts do not succeed amid bombs and bullets.

India has been stoutly defending its “special and privileged strategic partnership” with Russia and maintained the momentum in the ties notwithstanding the Ukraine conflict.

India has not yet condemned Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in 2022 and has consistently pitched for a resolution of the conflict through dialogue and diplomacy.

File picture of Russia’s President Vladimir Putin with Prime Minister Narendra Modi at the Kremlin in Moscow
| Photo Credit: via Reuters

Observing that India has a longstanding relationship with Russia, the U.S. has said that it has encouraged New Delhi to “utilise” that relationship with Moscow and urge President Vladimir Putin to end the “illegal war” against Ukraine.

These remarks were made by State Department Spokesperson Mathew Miller at his daily news conference on Monday.

“India has a longstanding relationship with Russia. I think that’s well-known. And we have encouraged India to utilise that relationship with Russia, that longstanding relationship and the unique position that they have, to urge President Putin to end his illegal war and to find a just peace, a lasting peace to this conflict; to tell Putin to respect the UN Charter, to respect Ukraine’s territorial integrity and sovereignty,” he said.

“That’s what we’ll continue to impress upon the Government of India, which is an important partner of ours when it comes to their relationship with Russia,” Mr. Miller said in response to a question.

Mr. Miller made similar remarks on July 9 soon after Prime Minister Narendra Modi left Russia.

Mr. Modi was in Russia for two days from July 8-9 for the 22nd India-Russia annual summit that has been watched closely by the West amidst the raging Ukraine conflict.

This was the Prime Minister’s first visit to Russia since the war started between Moscow and Kyiv in 2022.

During his talks with Mr. Putin on July 9, Prime Minister Modi told President Putin that a solution to the Ukraine conflict is not possible on the battlefield and peace efforts do not succeed amid bombs and bullets.

India has been stoutly defending its “special and privileged strategic partnership” with Russia and maintained the momentum in the ties notwithstanding the Ukraine conflict.

India has not yet condemned Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in 2022 and has consistently pitched for a resolution of the conflict through dialogue and diplomacy.

Amid the ongoing conflict between Moscow and Kyiv, the US has urged India to “utilize” its longstanding relationship with Russia and tell President Vladimir Putin to end his “illegal war” in Ukraine.

The spokesperson of the US State Department, Matthew Miller, in a press briefing on Monday not only noted the strong Delhi-Moscow ties but also urged India to tell Putin to respect the UN Charter.

“So India has a longstanding relationship with Russia. I think that’s well-known. And we have – speaking for the United States – encouraged India to utilize that relationship with Russia, that longstanding relationship and the unique position that they have, to urge President Putin to end his illegal war and to find a just peace, a lasting peace to this conflict; to tell Vladimir Putin to respect the UN Charter, to respect Ukraine’s territorial integrity and sovereignty,” Mr Miller said.

He further added, “That’s what we’ll continue to impress upon the Government of India, who is an important partner of ours when it comes to their relationship with Russia.”

Mr Miller’s remarks came in response to a media query on Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s recent visit to Russia, which the Ukrainian President termed as a devastating blow to the peace efforts.

PM Modi, who was on an official visit to Moscow recently, met with Russian President Vladimir Putin there and outlined their goals to eliminate non-tariff trade barriers and achieve a mutual trade volume of over USD 100 billion by 2030.

The two leaders also decided to continue dialogue on the liberalization of bilateral trade, including the possibility of establishing the EAEU-India Free Trade Area, according to the Leaders’ Joint Statement released following the meeting.

They also decided to work on developing a bilateral settlement system using national currencies and the consistent introduction of digital financial instruments for mutual settlements.

In Russia, PM Modi was ceremoniously presented with the Order of St Andrew the Apostle the First-Called, Russia’s highest civilian honour, by Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Notably, the award was bestowed on PM Modi in the year 2019, but he received it physically during his visit to the nation.

During his talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin there, PM Modi called peace “most important” for future generations. He said that there is no solution on the battlefield and added that peace talks do not succeed amid bombs, guns, and bullets.

“As a friend, I have always said that for the bright future of our coming generations, peace is of utmost importance. But I also know that solutions are not possible on battlegrounds. Amid bombs, guns, and bullets, solutions and peace talks do not succeed. We will have to follow the path to peace only through talks,” PM Modi had said.

It was PM Modi’s first visit to Russia since the war started between Moscow and Kyiv in 2022. India has always advocated “peace and diplomacy” for resolving conflict between India and Russia but continued to purchase Russian oil.

PM Modi said that everyone who believes in humanity is pained when there is a loss of lives. He further stated that it is “heart-wrenching” when innocent children are dying.

“Be it war, conflicts, terror attacks – everyone who believes in humanity is pained when there is loss of lives. But when innocent children are murdered, when we see innocent children dying, it is heart-wrenching. That pain is immense. I also held a detailed discussion with you over this,” he had said.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

Director of the Office of European Security and Political Affairs Liam Wasley.
| Photo Credit: PTI

“India, as a critical security provider globally, must play a constructive role in ensuring peace in Ukraine and providing it with the impetus to be able to negotiate with Russia,” a senior U.S. official has said.

Liam Wasley, Director of the Office of European Security and Political Affairs at the U.S. State Department said this, days after Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s high-profile visit to Moscow and his meeting with President Vladimir Putin, including on the Ukraine conflict.

Mr. Wasley said Indians should understand how much of a threat President Putin and his country are to America’s European allies and the NATO alliance. “It has also been a very jarring direct threat to the security of a billion members of democracies,” Mr. Wasley told PTI in an interview.

“I think that the Indian people can recognise how that is impacting the understanding and the approach of our NATO allies. It’s really important for India to be playing a constructive role in ensuring a just peace for Ukraine and providing the impetus for Ukraine to be able to negotiate to ensure its own future,” he said.

Leaders of the 32-member NATO alliance gathered in Washington DC this week for the 75th anniversary summit meeting where Russia’s war in Ukraine and China has been the two major topics of discussion.

He mentioned NATO’s strong statement in Washington on Wednesday on China’s role in enabling the Russian war machine and continuing the war in Ukraine. Russia would not be able to continue its onslaught on the Ukrainian people if it were not for the technology and the support that they are getting from China, Iran, and North Korea.

When asked if the Indian Prime Minister was insensitive to the security concerns of Europe and NATO allies, Mr. Wasley said: “We think it’s important for Indians to understand how those forces are contributing to extending and continuing an unjust, unprovoked war for several years.”

Referring to the meeting between U.S. President Joe Biden along with NATO allies and with the heads of state of Indo-Pacific partners, Mr. Wasley said part of this is because many aspects of security are now global.

“The declaration yesterday focussed on undersea warfare, focused on cyberspace, focussed on war in space. These are conversations that we’re having with our Indo-Pacific partners. Those were conversations that I can see are a future role for India because their security, our security, all of our security is interconnected,” he said, adding that there is room for this conversation to grow.

Describing NATO as a defensive alliance, he said it relies on the interest of other partners to want to be engaged. “I think that that is a decision for India to take, whether it wants a deeper relationship with NATO or with individual NATO partners,” he said.

Responding to a question, he said India has not chosen to be a partner of NATO. “India is a critical security provider and projector in a very large part of the world. We think India has enormous influence and an enormous voice and will have a great impact on how the future of the international security environment develops. This is why I think India can play a constructive role in bringing peace to Ukraine,” he said.

“This is why I think India has a key role in the conversation as we deal with the global security threats that we are all grappling with,” he added.

Mr. Wasley said the NATO alliance has shown that it is united in support of Ukraine and providing Ukraine with the support, the political support, the material support it needs to defend its own people, defend its own territory, and forge a just and lasting peace.

“It’s up to India to figure out how it can best contribute to that role,” he said. “The reference to China in the Washington declaration,” he said, captures the mood of the alliance.

“It captures the tone of the conversations that we’ve been having as allies for the past two years. China has stepped up its role in supporting Putin and in his no-limits partnership. So, I think it’s a recognition that China has decided that it is seeking to influence this conflict by enabling Putin,” Mr. Wasley said.

Washington:

The United States wants India to use its “special partnership” with Russia to put “pressure” on Moscow to stop the ongoing conflict in Ukraine and work for a durable peace in the region, US State Department Hindustani spokesperson, Margaret MacLeod said.

The US official also reiterated Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s famous quote “This is not an era of war” which the PM had told Russian President Vladimir Putin during the SCO Summit in Bali in 2022.

Speaking to ANI on Tuesday, MacLeod said, “The US is urging all its partners, including India to pressurise Russia for lasting peace in Ukraine. Russia should get out of Ukraine, This is not the era of war, as Prime Minister (PM Modi) has said. “

“India and Russia share a very special partnership. We wish India use this special partnership to pressurise Russia (against the war)…Russia’s war in Ukraine is a violation of the UN Charter,” she added.

Being asked about how the US and the West view India’s stand on the Ukraine conflict, the US official said, “It would be better if you ask the Indian government about India’s stand.”

“But from America’s perspective, Russia is violating the sovereignty of Ukraine. It is attacking the civilian infrastructure. Just yesterday, we saw the attack on children’s hospital, where there were no Ukrainian soldiers…this is against the UN Charter and international law,” she added.

Over 40 children were killed in missile strikes at a children’s hospital in the Ukrainian capital on Monday. Kyiv has blamed Moscow for the attack.

Regarding the ongoing NATO Summit in Washington DC, MacLeod said the alliance aims to discuss the vision for the next 75 years in this meeting. She also said that announcements of relief packages for Ukraine will be made during the summit.

“At this NATO Summit, we are celebrating 75 years of peace, unity, development and innovation, and will discuss on the preparations for the next 75 years,” the US official said.

“Most NATO members are in Europe, right where the Russia-Ukraine war is ongoing, because of which it is a very serious issue for them (European NATO members)…A big relief package for Ukraine will be announced. We will also get an announcement by Germany for setting up a coordination cell,” she added.

The NATO Summit is being held from July 9-11 in Washington DC.

The summit has come at a crucial time when the Russia-Ukraine conflict, which started in February 2022, has intensified and also when some cracks have emerged in NATO amid scepticism among some European partners and comments by former US President Donald Trump against the alliance.

This is also the first NATO Summit after the inclusion of two new member states — Finland and Sweden.

Speaking on the USD 60 dollar price cap put on the purchase of Russian crude oil, the US official said that the price cap has helped in “reducing” Russia’s earnings and it wants to further lessen the resources at Moscow’s disposal.

“We want to want as less resources as possible to reach Russia because it is using the same earnings to attack Ukraine. The price cap has impacted Russia’s earnings, but as long as it (Russia) is able to earn, it will continue to attack Ukraine…so we want to reduce its gains as much as possible,” MacLeod further said.

Notably, despite pressure from Western countries, India has continued to purchase crude oil from Russia under the price cap, which several government ministers and officials have said, has helped in keeping domestic prices of petrol and diesel stable.

Further, speaking on India-US ties, the US official said that the ties between the two countries is very strong, and added that Washington wants to strengthen its ties with New Delhi further.

“We see there are deep relations between India and the US, we are engaging on so many issues…sometimes we have differences in perspectives, but we have a free, frank and open dialogue with each other. We are very positive about our relationship…our government wants to strengthen our bilateral relationship further,” she said.

Being asked where the India-US relations are headed as it is an election year in the US, MacLeod said she can’t comment on her country’s domestic politics but affirmed that “historically, both parties (Republican and Democrat) have worked to strengthen relations with India.”

Prime Minister Modi went on a state visit to the US in June last year. Following this, President Joe Biden came to India for the G20 Summit last year.

The Quad Summit between the two nations is also expected to be held later this year in India.

Rescuers searched the rubble at a children’s hospital on July 9 for more dead and wounded, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said, a day after Russian missiles slammed into the facility and cities across the country in a massive daytime barrage. The death toll from the strikes rose to 42, officials said.

Mr. Zelenskyy said on the social platform X that 64 people were hospitalised in the capital, as well as 28 in Kryvyi Rih and six in Dnipro — both cities in central Ukraine.

It was Russia’s heaviest bombardment of Kyiv in almost four months and one of the deadliest of the war, hitting seven of the city’s 10 districts. The strike on the Okhmatdyt Children’s Hospital, which interrupted open-heart surgery and forced young cancer patients to take their treatments outdoors, drew an international outcry.

Also Read | Russia says captured another village in east Ukraine

The 10-story hospital, Ukraine’s largest medical facility for children, was caring for some 670 patients at the time of the attack, Okhmatdyt’s Director General, Volodymyr Zhovnir, said on Tuesday. The missile hit a two-story wing of the hospital.

“The building where we conducted dialysis for children with kidney failure or acute intoxication is ruined entirely,” he told reporters, estimating the overall damage to the hospital at $2.5 million.

Danielle Bell, the head of a U.N. team tracking human rights violations in Ukraine, said at least two persons were killed at the hospital and some 50 people were injured, including seven children. The casualty figure would have been much higher if patients had not been taken to a bunker when air raid sirens first sounded, she added.

Zhovnir said one of the two killed at the hospital was a female doctor who took children to the shelter and then went back to check nobody had been left behind

Oleh Holubchenko, a pediatric surgeon at the hospital, was operating on a baby with congenital face defects. Despite the blast of air sirens, he and his team decided to continue with the operation. “We could not stop halfway through,” he told AP.

When the missile struck, the shock wave flung him across the operating theatre. Shrapnel caused him minor injuries and pierced the infant’s ventilator. The baby, still with an open wound, had to be transported to another Kyiv hospital where they finished the surgery.

Authorities were working to restore the hospital’s power and water supply as Kyiv city administrators declared on Tuesday an official day of mourning. Entertainment events were prohibited and flags were lowered in the capital.

Russia denied responsibility for the hospital strike, insisting it doesn’t attack civilian targets in Ukraine despite abundant evidence to the contrary, including Associated Press reporting.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov on Tuesday repeated that position, pointing to a Russian Defence Ministry statement that blamed a Ukrainian air defense missile for partially destroying the hospital.

Bell, the head of the U.N. team, dismissed that argument. She said an assessment of video footage and findings on site indicated the hospital “took a direct hit, rather than receiving damage due to an intercepted weapons system.”

The hospital likely was struck by a Russian Kh-101 cruise missile, Bell said. Ukrainian officials said the same.

Over the past year, Moscow has been honing tactics to break through Ukraine’s air defence, said Alexander Kovalenko, a military analyst from Resistance, a nongovernmental information group.

Russia used a large number of various types of missile on Monday that, arriving together, made it hard for Ukrainian air defenses to intercept them, he said.

“They have been experimenting with different kinds of rockets since 2023 to find the perfect combination to break through our air defense algorithms,” he said.

Russian forces have also programmed missiles to manoeuvre mid-air, according to Kovalenko, who added that during Monday’s attack, a missile appeared at first to head further west, but then swerved back to strike Kyiv, Kovalenko said.

The bodies of three more people were found on Tuesday under the rubble of a residential building in the Shevchenkivskyi district of Kyiv, officials said, bringing the death toll in the single building to 10.

The Russian onslaught on Monday came on the eve of a NATO summit in Washington where alliance countries are expected to pledge new military and economic support for Ukraine.

Russian President Vladimir Putin, meanwhile, was hosting India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi in Moscow. New Delhi’s importance as a key trading partner has grown since the Kremlin sent troops into Ukraine in February 2022.

Mr. Zelenskyy was deeply critical of Mr. Modi’s visit, saying on X late Monday: “It is a huge disappointment and a devastating blow to peace efforts to see the leader of the world’s largest democracy hug the world’s most bloody criminal in Moscow on such a day.”

Meanwhile, Russian military and regional officials said on Tuesday that Ukrainian drones targeted six Russian regions overnight, in what appeared to be a bigger-than-usual aerial attack by Kyiv’s forces.

Russia’s Defence Ministry said air defence systems in five Russian southern and western regions “destroyed and intercepted” a total of 38 Ukrainian drones.

According to sources, India and Russia will sign “several” documents at the end of the talks on Tuesday, including a comprehensive joint statement, a vision statement, the future course on energy and trade, cooperation on investments in Russia’s Far East and a number of MoUs. The two sides are also discussing India’s desire to open new consulates in Russia, the sources confirmed.

New Delhi/Moscow:

Russia has decided to discharge all Indians working in the Russian army after Prime Minister Narendra Modi raised the issue with President Vladimir Putin during his Moscow visit, said sources.

At least two Indians have died fighting Russia’s war against Ukraine while dozens stuck in the war zone claim they were tricked into taking up the fighting role.

PM Modi, who is in Moscow for a two-day visit, raised the issue at a private dinner hosted by Putin last evening, sources said. Russia agreed to discharge all Indians serving in their army and facilitate their return, they added.

At the dinner meet, Putin also congratulated PM Modi for being re-elected for a third term and spoke about the rising stature of the Indian economy, sources said.

Nearly two dozen Indians are believed to have been forced into fighting the war against Ukraine after being tricked by agents into going to the country on the pretext of getting high-paying jobs.

A viral video earlier this year showed a group of men from Punjab and Haryana – wearing army uniforms – claiming they were tricked into fighting the war in Ukraine and doubling down on their request for help.

The government in March said they had “strongly” taken up the matter with Russian authorities for their early discharge. “Strong action has been initiated against agents and unscrupulous elements who recruited them on false pretexts and promises,” they said.

Indian probe agencies have also carried out raids and busted a ring involved in trafficking Indians to Russia. During the raids, it emerged that these firms sent at least 35 Indians to Russia, though an official said it was not clear if all of them were forced to fight in the war.

PM Modi in Russia

PM Modi landed in Moscow last evening, which marks his first visit to the country since it launched a war against Ukraine. Russia’s First Deputy PM Denis Manturov received him at the airport.

The Prime Minister will hold bilateral talks with Putin today and also attend the 22nd India-Russia summit in Moscow.

PM Modi has been treading a fine line between maintaining a longstanding relationship with Moscow and courting closer Western security ties. The visit is also PM Modi’s first since he returned to power for a third term.

Kyiv:

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said Friday 10 civilians, including a politician and two priests, taken prisoner in Russia and Belarus had been freed in a deal mediated by the Vatican.

Russia and Ukraine have exchanged hundreds of prisoners throughout their two-year conflict, typically in one-for-one swaps, but the release of civilian prisoners is rarer.

“We managed to return 10 more of our people from Russian captivity,” Zelensky said in a post on Telegram. It was not immediately clear if the release was part of an exchange deal involving Russian prisoners held in Ukraine.

Some of those released have been in prison since 2017, he said, arrested in Russian-controlled parts of eastern Ukraine that at the time were run by Moscow-backed separatists.

Russia has since annexed four Ukrainian regions — Donetsk, Kherson, Lugansk and Zaporizhzhia — alongside the Crimea peninsula which it seized in 2014.

The list of those freed included Nariman Dzhelal, a senior Crimean Tatar politician and two priests from the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church.

Five of them were originally arrested in Belarus, Russia’s close ally, including on charges of aiding Kyiv’s army by providing information on Russian military movements.

Russia invaded Ukraine through Belarus at the start of the war and although Minsk has not joined Russia’s offensive, the two countries’ militaries are closely linked.

“They have all been released and are now back home in Ukraine,” Zelensky said.

“I would also like to note the Vatican’s efforts to bring these people home,” he added, without elaborating.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)