All Indians from Kyiv evacuated: MEA

Refugees arriving from Ukraine, including Indian students of Kyiv University, at the border town of Zahony on Tuesday. Pic/AFP

All of our nationals have left Kyiv... All our inquiries reveal that each and every one of our nationals has come out of Kyiv," said Foreign Secretary Harsh Vardhan Shringla on Tuesday. There were about 20,000 Indian students in Ukraine when the government issued its first advisory, he said. "From that number, approximately 12,000 have since left Ukraine, which is 60 per cent of the total," Shringla said, of the rest, half remain in conflict zones.

The advisory came amid increasing fighting between Russian forces and Ukrainian troops around Kyiv. However, a lot of students alleged that the trains were full and there were hardly any other means of transport to take them to safer places. Following the advisory, Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan on Tuesday requested all Malayalis there to follow it.

Indian students, who fled from Kyiv, enter Hungary, on Monday. Pic/AFP

"We had an estimated 20,000 Indian students in Ukraine at the time that we issued our first advisory. From that number approximately 12,000 have since left Ukraine, which is 60 per cent of the total number of our citizens in Ukraine," said Foreign Secretary Harsh Vardhan Shringla late in the evening. Of the remaining, roughly half remain in conflict zone in Kharkiv, Sumy area, he said.Agencies

Air Force roped in for evacuations

Prime Minister Narendra Modi has asked the Indian Air Force (IAF) to evacuate Indians stranded in Ukraine due to the Russian military offensive against that country, sources said on Tuesday.

The IAF is likely to deploy several C-17 aircraft as part of Operation Ganga from Tuesday, they said. Till now, only private Indian carriers have been evacuating Indians from Romania and Hungary, countries with land borders with Ukraine on the western side, as the Ukrainian airspace has been shut since February 24.

India began evacuation of around 14,000 of its stranded citizens on February 26. In a statement on Tuesday, the IAF said it is geared up for any requirements of evacuation of Indian citizens from Ukraine.

C-17 is IAF's largest transport aircraft and can carry about 300 passengers in it during a humanitarian relief mission. Indians are travelling by road to Ukraine's borders with Romania, Hungary, Slovakia, Poland etc, from where they are being evacuated.

26
No. of flights that brought Indians from Ukraine in 3 days