Indians reluctant to denounce Russian ‘brothers’ over Ukraine

While street-level opinion is even-handed, commentators from right and left are converging on the war

• Russia-Ukraine war: latest updates

At the bustling tea stands and roadside eateries of Delhi, European politics is not a regular topic of conversation. But with wall-to-wall coverage of the war in Ukraine on television and in the newspapers, petrol prices rising and pressure growing on the prime minister, Narendra Modi, to denounce Russia, Indians are starting to grapple with the consequences of the conflict 2,800 miles away.

Ram Agarwal, a shopkeeper, does not condone the loss of civilian life but nor can he bring himself to criticise Russia. He grew up in the 1950s and 60s when India and the Soviet Union were such close allies that Nikita Khrushchev coined the slogan Hindi Rusi bhai bhai" (Indians and Russians are brothers).