Ukraine’s first deputy foreign minister, Emine Dzhaparova on Monday urged India to join President Volodymyr Zelensky’s Peace Plan and Grain From Ukraine programme, underscoring that the Indian aspiration to become a world leader mandates that New Delhi side with Kyiv against Moscow.

Dzhaparova — the first Ukrainian minister to visit India after the war with Russia broke out on February 24 last year — began her tour with an attempt to stoke the Narendra Modi government’s desire to be recognised as “Vishwaguru (world leader)”.

Ahead of her first official engagement — a delegation-level discussion with the secretary (west) in the external affairs ministry, Sanjay Verma — Dzhaparova tweeted: “Happy to visit India — the land that gave birth to many sages, saints & gurus. Today, #India wants to be the Vishwaguru, the global teacher and arbiter.

“In our case, we’ve got a very clear picture: aggressor against innocent victim. Supporting Ukraine is the only right choice for true Vishwaguru.”

About her meeting with Verma, the Ukrainian minister tweeted that she had updated India on Ukraine’s efforts to fight the “unprovoked” Russian aggression.

“Invited India to join President Zelenskyy’s #PeaceFormula & #GrainFromUkraine initiative. Important to have #India on board,” she wrote.

The only official word from India on the meeting was a tweet by Verma that said: “Pleasure to receive Ukrainian Deputy FM @EmineDzheppar. Perspectives shared. Discussed bilateral engagements and cooperation going forward. Wishing her a good trip. Her first as DFM, but a country she is familiar with.”

Outside South Block, where reporters asked her how Kyiv viewed India multiplying fossil fuel purchases from Russia, Dhzaparova acknowledged that Ukraine cannot tell India where to buy its oil from but quoted Zelensky to say that “extraordinary times need extraordinary decisions”.

She stressed that it was important for India to diversify its energy and military hardware sources to insulate itself from blackmail.

“We are not in the position of instructing India in their economic ties with other countries. We only think that it is crucial to diversify all of their resources; not only energy but also military resources,” she said.

“Because what we see from my country is, when you are dependent on Russia, they will always use this blackmail instrument…. I think that India should be pragmatic in diversifying energy resources, in diversifying military contracts and political interactions….”