Ukraine updates: Russia hosts BRICS summit in Kazan

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi said early on Tuesday that he had departed for the BRICS summit in Kazan in Russia. 

“India attaches immense importance to BRICS, and I look forward to extensive discussions on a wide range of subjects. I also look forward to meeting various leaders there,” he said. 

In a slightly longer press release, Modi also made reference to his visit to Moscow in July this year and said he hoped to further deepen bilateral ties. 

“Building upon the Annual Summit held in July 2024 in Moscow, my visit to Kazan will further reinforce the Special and Privileged Strategic Partnership between India and Russia,” the statement from Modi said. 

Modi also visited Kyiv in late August. In both countries he expressed a willingness to help broker any potential negotiations or efforts to stop the conflict.  

Ukraine’s Foreign Ministry criticized UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres for his reported plans to attend the talks in Kazan, after he had skipped Kyiv’s summit seeking a way to end the war with Russia.

“The UN Secretary General declined Ukraine’s invitation to the first global peace summit in Switzerland,” Kyiv’s Foreign Ministry wrote online. “He did, however, accept the invitation to Kazan from war criminal Putin. This is a wrong choice that does not advance the cause of peace. It only damages the UN’s reputation.” 

It’s not entirely clear whether Guterres will attend in Kazan this week, however.

Russian officials said earlier this month that the UN chief had told Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov that he would be in Kazan. 

But deputy UN spokesman Farham Haq told reporters on Monday that Guterres’ future travel plans were not yet set. 

Ukraine’s “peace summit” in Switzerland in June involved representatives of dozens of countries, but perhaps crucially, none from Russia. Moscow denounced it as meaningless.

President Vladimir Putin‘s government has invited a series of world leaders to Kazan for talks in the recently-expanded BRICS group lasting three days, and starting this Tuesday. 

The acronym BRICS stands for the five countries Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa.

But the group decided at its 2023 summit to try to expand its ranks. 

Argentina, Ethiopia, Egypt, Iran, the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia were all invited to join, although Argentine President Javier Milei declined after winning the election, saying he wanted to take more of a pro-Western course.

The Kremlin likely hopes the meeting in Kazan will show that any political isolation of Russia amid its invasion of Ukraine doesn’t extend far past NATO’s borders.