Modi's trip to Ukraine an important one: US

New Delhi: The US on Wednesday described Prime Minister Narendra Modi's visit to Ukraine on August 23 as "important" that comes around six weeks after his trip to Moscow.

Richard R Verma, the US Deputy Secretary of State for Management and Resources, at the same time noted that Washington understands India's "long relationship" with Russia.

The prime minister will be in Kyiv for around seven hours on Friday. The prime minister is scheduled to hold one-on-one and delegation-level talks with President Volodymyr Zelenskyy with a focus on finding a peaceful resolution of the Ukraine conflict.

"I am delighted about this visit. I think this is an important visit -- Poland and Ukraine," Verma said at an interactive session at the Centre for Social and Economic Progress in Delhi.

The senior Biden administration official said he appreciated PM Modi's previous comments that it is not an era of war and it is time for peace. "We understand India's long relationship with Russia and India has to make its own determinations about where it wants to be on the scale," Verma said. The former US ambassador to India added "this is a very consequential period for defence of liberty, freedom and rule of law".

Modi said his maiden visit to Poland will add momentum to the bilateral friendship and benefit the people of the two countries as he arrived here on the first leg of his two-nation visit .

Modi, who will meet Poland's President Andrzej Sebastian Duda and hold bilateral talks with Prime Minister Donald Tusk, said he was looking forward to the various programmes in the Polish capital here. The Indian community members in Poland gave a warm welcome to Prime Minister Modi when he arrived at the hotel where Polish and Indian artists performed the vibrant cultural dance from Gujarat.