Ukrainian Indians: Students stranded in Sumy waited days to be evacuated
New Delhi:
Evacuation of about 600 Indian students trapped in UkraineSumy’s has begun. Union Minister Hardeep Singh Puri told reporters that all 694 Indian students, who were stranded in Sumy, had set off for Poltava by bus. “Last night, I checked with the control room, 694 Indian students were left in Sumy. Today, they all got on the bus to Poltava,” Mr. Puri told reporters.
The Press Trust of India news agency reported that a medical student at Sumy University confirmed that the bus had arrived and that the students had started boarding. “We have been informed that we are going to Poltava. I am praying that we will reach the safe zone and this miserable situation is over,” he was quoted as saying by PTI.
The foreign ministry tweeted that from Poltova they would board a ship to western Ukraine.
Happy to announce that we have been able to transfer all Indian students out of Sumy.
They are currently en route to Poltava, from where they will board a train to western Ukraine.
Flights under #OperationGanga is being prepared to bring them home. pic.twitter.com/s60dyYt9U6
– Arindam Bagchi (@MEAIndia) March 8, 2022
Students are transferred during the evacuation of civilians from Sumy and the town of Irpin near the Ukrainian capital Kyiv through a green corridor to Poltova, a city in central Ukraine. Ukraine’s Foreign Ministry tweeted a video of the evacuation of Sumy’s citizens, saying, “We urge Russia to agree on other humanitarian corridors in Ukraine.”
We have already begun evacuating civilians from Sumy to Poltava, including foreign students.
We urge Russia to agree on other humanitarian corridors in Ukraine.#Ukraine#StopRussianAggressionpic.twitter.com/pmjhHLkIrH
– Ukraine’s MFA (@MFA_Ukraine) March 8, 2022
Sumy, located near the Russian border and about 350 kilometers east of the Ukrainian capital Kyiv, has been plagued by heavy fighting since the invasion. Today, at least nine people, including two children, died in an air strike on the city.
The students had been waiting to be evacuated for days. On Saturday, unable to cope with the bitter cold and dwindling supplies of food and water, students shared a video saying they had decided to begin their adventurous journey to the Russian border. that’s 50 km.
But they were dissuaded by the government, which contacted them and asked them to “avoid unnecessary risks”.
The plan to evacuate them failed yesterday when Ukraine rejected Russia’s plan for a humanitarian corridor to Russia and Belarus.
Soon after, Prime Minister Narendra Modi discussed with Russian President Vladimir Putin and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on how to begin the process of evacuating the stalled Indian students from Sumy.
