‘Deeply concerned about worsening situation in Ukraine’: India at UN

New Delhi, May 06: India on Friday expressed deep concern over the worsening situation in Ukraine and reiterated the call for an immediate cessation of violence and end to hostilities.

"We continue to remain deeply concerned about the worsening situation in Ukraine and reiterate the call for an immediate cessation of violence and end to hostilities," said Pratik Mathur, Counsellor in India's Permanent Mission to the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) at Arria-formula meeting by the UN Security Council on Friday.

"India has strongly condemned the killing of civilians in Bucha and supported the call for an independent investigation...We believe that there will be no winning side to this conflict," he said.

"We welcome the visit by Secretary-General to Moscow and Kyiv and his engagement with the leadership in the Russian Federation and Ukraine...We appreciate the efforts of the UN in evacuating the civilian population from Mariupol," he added.

Asserting that India is on the side of peace, Prime Minister Narendra Modi had earlier said that India believes there will be no winner in the Russia-Ukraine conflict and all will suffer losses.

PM Modi said that from the start of the Ukraine crisis, India has called for immediate cessation of hostilities and stressed that talks are the only solution to resolve the dispute.

"We believe that there will be no winner in this war and all will suffer losses. Therefore, we are on the side of peace," he said.

"Due to the disturbance caused by the Ukraine crisis, oil prices are sky rocketing, there is a shortage of food grains and fertilizers as a result of which every family in the world has been burdened," he said.