Days after Prime Minister Narendra Modi told Russian President Vladimir Putin that the time had come to move from an “endless war” to an “end of war”, and External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar travelled to Kyiv offering India’s help to end the conflict, Moscow has signalled that it is open to New Delhi playing a role in the emerging diplomatic push to end the Russia-Ukraine war.Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov on Tuesday said Russia welcomed India’s willingness to contribute to efforts to settle the conflict, providing a significant opening for New Delhi as fresh negotiations involving Russia, Ukraine and the United States gather momentum.“We do want the solution of the Ukrainian conflict by peaceful means and Russia is open for this process,” Peskov told Indian journalists in a virtual interaction ahead of Putin’s visit to India for the BRICS summit.“We welcome all the attempts to make any contribution in this sphere of Ukraine settlement. We welcome the willingness of the Indian side to contribute,” he added.The remarks come against the backdrop of an unusually active sequence of Indian diplomacy on the Ukraine conflict.Modi met Putin on the sidelines of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation summit in Bishkek on August 31, telling the Russian President that the two sides needed to move from an “endless war” towards an “end to the war” and a cessation of hostilities. India, he said, supported all peace efforts.Just days later, Jaishankar travelled to Kyiv, where he held talks with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha. He said India remained ready to help end the conflict and was in continuous contact with both Russia and Ukraine. Zelenskyy, in turn, thanked India for its efforts to help end the war.The diplomatic moves have coincided with a renewed US-led attempt to revive negotiations. US special envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner held more than three hours of talks with Putin in Moscow before travelling to Kyiv for discussions with Zelenskyy.The Ukrainian President has since said the envoys presented several promising ideas for ending the war, although no breakthrough has been announced. A possible trilateral meeting involving Russia, Ukraine and the US is also being discussed.Against this backdrop, Peskov’s acknowledgement of India’s willingness to contribute assumes greater significance.He said Moscow also hoped for the resumption of negotiations involving Russia, Ukraine and the US, with American negotiators currently travelling between Moscow and Kyiv to convey the positions of the parties. “We hope for restart of negotiations between three parties — Russian, Ukrainian and America,” he said.Peskov, however, maintained Moscow’s long-standing position that Kyiv was not showing sufficient flexibility and accused some European countries of continuing to push Ukraine towards a strategic defeat of Russia.At the same time, he insisted that Moscow remained ready for a peaceful settlement. “Every minute we are ready to switch to peaceful mode. It depends on Kyiv. This is the reality,” he said.For New Delhi, the developments mark a potential shift from repeatedly calling for dialogue and diplomacy to seeking a more practical role in the peace process.India’s position has been that the conflict cannot be resolved on the battlefield and that dialogue between the parties is indispensable. Jaishankar, during his Kyiv visit, also argued that the war would not be resolved by countries buying or not buying Russian oil, stressing the need for diplomacy and negotiations.Peskov also said Putin and Modi would hold another bilateral meeting during the Russian President’s visit to India. The talks, scheduled for Friday, are expected to cover bilateral trade and economic cooperation, energy, nuclear power, transportation, investments and other strategic issues, besides international developments.The Ukraine conflict is also expected to figure prominently, with Peskov saying Putin would brief his “Indian friend” on developments on the battlefield.He described the relationship between Modi and Putin as close and personal, saying their rapport allowed them to discuss sensitive international and bilateral issues in an open and constructive manner.The two leaders’ latest interaction in Bishkek was, according to Peskov, “very personal” and “very friendly”. He said they had continued their conversation while travelling together to the opening of sporting activities.Peskov also acknowledged that India had repeatedly raised the issue of its nationals recruited into the Russian armed forces and sent to the battlefield in Ukraine.He said Moscow was working on a list of Indian citizens currently on the battlefield and that they would be sent back once identified. “We are in a very deep contact, profound contact, with the Indian side on this issue,” Peskov said.His remarks came after Foreign Secretary Vikram Misri said recently that 51 Indian nationals had died while serving in the Russian armed forces during the war.On the economic front, Peskov said Russian energy supplies to India continued to rise, though he declined to provide figures. “Every month we have a new record,” he said when asked about India’s imports of Russian energy.He also acknowledged the widening trade imbalance between the two countries, largely driven by India’s purchases of Russian oil, and said Moscow was seeking to increase imports of Indian goods and encourage joint projects in India to help correct the imbalance.Nuclear energy, he said, would remain another major pillar of the partnership, with Moscow seeking further progress after its involvement in the Kudankulam nuclear power project.Peskov also highlighted cooperation in space, artificial intelligence, science and technology, healthcare, education and cultural exchanges.For the first time in the current sequence of diplomatic moves, Moscow has publicly said it welcomes India’s willingness to contribute to the settlement — potentially giving New Delhi an opening to move from being a voice for peace to a participant in efforts to help achieve it.