Swiss here, believe me, the cowardice of our federal council hiding behind nEuTrALitY pisses me off to no end
I wish we would go all in in supporting Ukraine. Our neutrality does not extend to violations of international law. Acting like it does is a cowardly political decision supported by ultra rich motherfuckers who hope to continue getting richer and richer through trading with the mafia that is the Russian state
By way of clarification on my original post, it's only ever fair to make a statement (sweeping generalization) like mine about a state (ie: the policy/position of its leaders) and not it's people, so I want to make sure that's understood as my position here.
While there have been cases in history where a great number of humans being have been aligned along a "questionable" moral axis, I've never heard of a single case where every person was unanimous in anything, especially on extreme issues.
From my first hand experience when I visited last year, nearly everyone I spoke to had a hard time acknowledging there was anything wrong with what they saw as Russia reclaiming land that was rightfully theirs. There was often outright admiration for Putin for being brave enough to put the interest of his nation first and telling the West to go swivel.
No coincidence that India has similar feelings towards several of its own neighbours and parts of Kashmir are not too dissimilar to Crimea.
The reaction would be very different if China ever did the same in Taiwan though, because... reasons.
India's neutrality is due to several factors all aligning in the same direction:-
We need wheat, fertilisers and oil from Russia.
Most Indians, across the political spectrum, have a positive view of Russia due to all the things they did for us during the Cold War. Most Indians wouldn't know what a Ukraine is.
The Ukrainian police (and many citizens) attacked Indian students and workers trying to leave the country when the war began. They were also accused of using Indians and Africans as human shields. Ukraine and NATO are also supporting the Gaza genocide.
(I'm guessing there is also some schadenfreude, at least among some people, at seeing a European country getting colonised by a semi-Asian one.)
Also, India has a one-China policy and does not usually comment on the internal affairs of other countries.
No they aren't. They absolutely aren't. What we are doing in Kashmir is nothing short of colonisation. India is as imperialistic as the west is/was. It's just that we're terrible at it.
India should probably have given more aid to the Ukrainian people, and helped broker ceasefires or humanitarian pauses. But to destroy our relationship with Russia would be risking famine and economic collapse (see how the significantly richer EU has suffered from lack of oil).
Ironic you mention that Ukraine was unfair to Indians when the Russians are literally kidnapping them and forcing them to work.
The first happened two years ago; the second has only come to light recently. If the Russian state is found to have been complicit in the latter, public opinion will doubtless change.