Whereas India wants the war to end, China has no problem with letting the fighting continue. These positions have less to do with how China and India each feel about Russia and more to do with how they feel about each other.

For decades, Russia has been one of the few major powers that India could count on to help counterbalance China. The bilateral relationship amounted to a buffer and a hedge, ensuring that instead of being squeezed by its larger neighbor, India retained some geopolitical room to maneuver. But this system cannot work if Russia is hollowed out and dependent on China. And that is precisely the outcome the Ukraine war has produced.