Foreign Secretary Harsh Vardhan Shringla said that this afternoon I spoke separately to the ambassadors of Russia and Ukraine. To both the leaders, I reiterated the demand for the safe and immediate evacuation of Indian nationals stranded in Kharkiv and other areas of Ukraine.
Shringla said that according to our estimate when we issued the first advisory, there were 20,000 Indian students in Ukraine. Of these, about 12,000 students have left Ukraine. Of the remaining 8,000 students, about half are in Kharkiv and Sumy, and the other half have either reached or are on the way to the western borders of Ukraine.
The Foreign Secretary said that we had advised our citizens trapped in Kyiv to move to the western parts and leave Ukraine whenever possible. He may head to Hungary, Slovakia, Romania, Poland and Moldova. 7700 Indians have left through these routes, 2000 have returned and four to five thousand are waiting for the aircraft.
‘All Indian citizens left Kyiv’
Foreign Secretary Shringla said that all our citizens have left Kiev, according to the information we have, we have no more citizens in Kyiv, no one has contacted us from there. He said that we will get our citizens out of the conflict zone as soon as possible and bring back the body of Naveen Shekharappa, we are in touch with the local authorities regarding this.
He said Shekharappa’s body has been taken to the university morgue. Today I spoke to his parents. We will not only try to evacuate our citizens from the conflict zones at the earliest but also bring Naveen’s body.
India sent humanitarian aid to Ukraine
Foreign Secretary Shringla said a plane carrying the first shipment of humanitarian aid took off this morning for Ukraine via Poland. The consignment contains medicines, medical equipment and other relief materials. Another aircraft carrying the second consignment will take off tomorrow. Meanwhile, Foreign Ministry sources said that two tonnes of humanitarian aid including tents, blankets, surgical gloves, protective eye gear, water storage tanks, sleeping mats, tarpaulins and medicines have been sent to Ukraine today.