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With around 20,000 Indian students already evacuated from Ukraine, the government reckons there are between 2,000 and 3,000 Indians left in the conflict-hit country and around 300 in Kharkiv where the heaviest fighting is on.
“We will not rest until we have got the last one out. Evacuation flights will continue till every Indian is out from the country,” said Arindam Bagchi, the spokesman for the Ministry of External Affairs.
He added that the government had appealed to both Russia and Ukraine to cease fire for a short while and create humanitarian corridors so that all Indian citizens can leave.
An Indian student with gunshot injuries, Harjyot Singh, is in a hospital in Kharkiv. As soon as it is safe and he is in a position to be moved, he will be evacuated. The government will bear all his medical expenses. The embassy is yet to meet him as fighting is ongoing in the street, but he is safe in a hospital, Bagchi said.
When the conflict first broke out, around 20,000 Indians had registered with the Indian Embassy. However, Bagchi said not all in Ukraine had registered and the number of students could be more.
In the past 24 hours, 18 flights have landed carrying 4,000 Indians. This brings the total number of flights operational as part of Operation Ganga to 48. Sixteen flights are waiting to leave with Indians aboard all around Ukraine. These include four IAF craft.
“The vast majority of Indians who have crossed the border from Ukraine will have returned by tomorrow (Saturday) this time. Flights will continue,” Bagchi said.
He conceded that students still stranded in Sumy and Kharkiv in eastern Ukraine were facing a difficult situation. Social media is full of messages from these students who are facing a shortage of food and water. And while fighting was on so it was dangerous to move outdoors, efforts were on to negotiate a humanitarian corridor and a ceasefire for a few hours, he said.
However, the situation is unpredictable and smallest moves can involve extensive deliberation and delay. Bagchi said nearly 1,000 Indians were in a city called Pisochyn and five buses were contracted to take them out. But getting buses is easier said than done with petrol and vehicle shortages and also lack of drivers, with many unwilling to take Indian students when the buses were needed by armed forces on both sides. Bagchi said the government had noted the Russian offer of buses on the Russian side. But the road from East Ukraine to the Russian border was full of pitfalls and travel nearly 60 km to the buses was not feasible or advisable unless a ceasefire corridor was created.
“We want a local ceasefire. We’ve already told both sides: please let’s have a ceasefire,” Bagchi said.
More humanitarian aid — medicines and medical equipment — was flown to neighbouring countries in the expectation that these countries will carry it onwards into Ukraine if required. Bagchi said the intensity of calls for help from Ukraine was coming down. There have been 11,000 calls so far and 9,000 emails.
Bagchi said India had received calls for help from students from Bangladesh and Nepal and was committed to helping them as well. A Bangladeshi student has landed in Delhi and other calls will also be attended.
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