Four Union ministers to fly out to bring back Indian students stranded in Ukraine

A group of students after their return from Ukraine, in Patna, on Monday. Pic/PTI

The government on Monday decided to send four Union ministers to the neighbouring countries of Ukraine to coordinate the evacuation process of thousands of Indians, including students, still stranded in the war-hit country. Union ministers Hardeep Puri, Jyotiraditya Scindia, Kiren Rijiju and VK Singh will be going as "special envoys" of India, government sources said, even as Air India planes continued to bring students back home.

Scindia will take care of evacuation efforts from Romania and Moldova while Rijiju will go to Slovakia. The sources said that Puri will go to Hungary while Singh will be in Poland to manage the evacuation. Evacuation trains have been arranged by Ukraine and students are advised to report at the railway station in Kyiv to be shifted to the country's western areas, the Indian Embassy in Ukraine tweeted on Monday. But students said Ukrainian guards were not allowing them to board trains and also beating up people.

Indian nationals on way to board a special AI flight, evacuating Indians from Ukraine, in Budapest. Pic/PTI

It's getting difficult to stay here, say students

"It's getting difficult for us to stay here," Ansh Pandita said as scores of Indian students, including women, sat huddled together at the teeming Vokzal railway station in Kyiv, holding a large tricolour aloft so they could be recognised in the crowd and also so no one from the group gets lost.

The group of about 100 students managed to reached the station but no one could board a train. "Ukrainian soldiers are not allowing us to board the train to Hungary. In fact, they are not allowing any international resident to get out," Pandita, a student of Taras Shevchenko National Medical University in Kyiv, said over the phone from the station.

Can't abandon our own people: Rahul

Congress's Rahul Gandhi asked the Centre to share its evacuation plan with those stranded and their families as he shared a video of some students being harassed in Ukraine. "My heart goes out to the Indian students suffering such violence... No parent should go through this," he tweeted, sharing the video of some students.

‘Situation very difficult, Trying our best'

Igor Polikha, Ukrainian envoy to India
‘The situation is very difficult and complex. My resources are limited. We are victim of an aggression. Still we are trying to help people including those from other countries'
‘In case of Indian nationals, we are even trying to use our personal contacts to help them. But, you have to understand the ground realities. We are in a war'

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