Russia has offered admission in its varsities to Indian students who had to flee Ukraine

Speaking on the occasion of Russia’s National Day recently, Russian ambassador Denis Alipov chose to extend his nation’s goodwill towards India when he said that his country deeply cherishes the “equal and respectful relations” with India and the multidimensional cooperation between the two strategic partners is one of the world’s “most elaborate” ones. Now, this statement doesn’t per se make news but what renders it important is the fact that it comes about at a time when Russia is invading its neighbour and former USSR member, Ukraine, with its full military might on the pretext that the smaller country is trying to gain the membership of Nato and the development, if it comes about, would endanger Russia’s security. Though it certainly hasn’t been able to claw its mighty fist into Ukraine even after 110 days of fierce fighting as Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and his troops have stood solidly like a rock despite facing several territorial setbacks, mainly on account of the shortage of state-of-the-art artillery and firepower to take on the advancing Russians, it doesn’t take away from their fighting skills’ credit.

One still remembers when in the initial days of the invasion attempt, the US offered to airlift former tele-actor-turned-President Zelenskyy to safety and he spoke like a true statesman: “No, I don’t need a lift. I would rather have modern firearms to take on the Russian troops who are killing our innocent civilians and children.” In the course of the prolonged invasion bid, Russia was understandably isolated in the world and, besides the embarrassment of facing at least two resolutions against it in the United Nations, it was forced to suffer several sanctions from the superpowers, barring China. However, India steadfastly refused to vote against Russia, choosing instead to abstain from the votes. This diplomatic stratagem seems to have worked well since neither the US, leading the global charge against Russia, not the invading country has turned against the world’s largest democracy. Now obviously Russia doesn’t want to be seen as ungratefulMain Piece to its all-weather friend. Towards this end, it’s underlining the age-old camaraderie between the nations and has even said that Indian students who had to leave studies midway as they fled the Russia-Ukraine conflict will be offered admission in Russian universities without them losing out on their previous academic years.