NEW DELHI — Prime Minister Modi made on Friday a historic visit to Ukraine, becoming the first Indian head of state to do so since just after the Soviet Union’s collapse in 1991. The visit comes just six weeks after President Zelensky expressed his “huge disappointment” over Mr. Modi’s warm embrace of his adversary, President Putin, in Moscow. 

However, India’s ties with both sides of the conflict might position it uniquely to facilitate what no other government has achieved — a pathway to peace. Mr. Modi’s visit to Kyiv certainly took place at an agitated moment in the conflict, with Ukrainian forces remaining in Russia’s western Kursk region after their August 6 incursion, all while Russian troops continued to make gains in eastern Ukraine.