The Ukrainian embassy in Delhi on Thursday accused Russia of conducting a “disinformation operation” on Indian soil by circulating what it described as false claims that had led to the detention of six Ukrainians.

The mission alleged that Moscow was trying to draw India into its geopolitical
agenda.

Kyiv has accused Moscow of orchestrating a sophisticated smear campaign by feeding Indian authorities fabricated intelligence regarding Ukrainian citizens.

In a statement, the embassy slammed remarks by the Russian foreign ministry, alleging that Moscow was attempting to manipulate information and interfere in India’s internal processes. It claimed that allegations about Ukrainian “terrorists” were based on fabricated inputs and were politically motivated.

The NIA had on March 13 arrested six Ukrainian nationals and one US citizen under the anti-terror law on charges of conspiring to carry out terrorist activities against India. The accused were alleged to have travelled to Mizoram without a mandatory Restricted Area Permit, crossed into Myanmar, met ethnic armed groups and delivered multiple consignments of drones from Europe.

The Ukrainian embassy said Kremlin-linked actors had passed “concocted” information — allegedly originating from Russian security agencies — to Indian authorities as part of a deliberate disinformation campaign.

“Recently, Russia’s ministry of propaganda, which also masquerades as its ministry of foreign affairs, issued a comment by its so-called ‘official representative’ regarding the detention of Ukrainian citizens in India,” the embassy said.

Accusing Moscow of trying to draw India into its geopolitical agenda, the embassy said such actions reflect a “profound disregard” for India’s sovereignty and democratic institutions.

“India is a sovereign democratic state, and a court in New Delhi is not a branch of Moscow’s Khamovnichesky or Lefortovsky district courts, widely known for politically motivated verdicts, grave human rights abuses, and contempt for international law,” the embassy said, adding India’s judicial system cannot be influenced by external political instructions.

After the arrest of the six Ukrainian nationals, Russia had taken a sharp dig at the Volodymyr Zelensky administration, saying that the “neo-Nazi” government of Ukraine wanted to keep the “questionable activities of its citizens under wraps”.

The incident, Russia’s foreign ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova said, clearly showed that “Zelensky’s neo-Nazi regime has a core exporter of instability worldwide”.

“The reaction of the Ukrainian embassy in New Delhi was quite revealing as it sought to conceal the incident and to keep its citizens’ questionable activities, which were clearly designed to destabilise the situation in the region, under wraps,” Zakharova had said in a statement.

“The Ukrainian foreign ministry chose to remain silent on its citizens’ violation of India’s counter-terrorism legislation and wasted no time baselessly accusing ‘certain Indian and Russian news agencies’ of deliberately falsifying the facts.”

The Ukrainian embassy referred to the International Criminal Court arrest warrant issued in March 2023 against Russian President Vladimir Putin over alleged war crimes, including the deportation of civilians from Ukraine.

It accused Russia of destabilising activities globally through private military networks such as the Wagner Group, citing sanctions imposed by the European Union.