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7,000 Indian citizens have left from Ukraine so far: MoS V Muraleedharan
A group of parents of students stuck in Ukraine from Pune met the minister in the city on Wednesday and demanded their safe evacuation
PUNE Union Minister of State (MoS) for External Affairs V Muraleedharan said there were at least 20,000 citizens who were stranded in Ukraine. Of them, 4,000 returned to India before February 24. Additional 2,000 students were brought back to India till Tuesday; some are in transit and efforts are on to evacuate the remaining Indians stranded there.
A group of parents of students stuck in Ukraine from Pune met the minister in the city on Wednesday and demanded their safe evacuation.
“We spoke with parents of students who are stuck in Ukraine and have assured them of the safety of their children. The Indian government is making all possible efforts for the evacuation and necessary arrangements are been done,” he said.
Since the number of stranded persons is huge, Indian Air Force aircraft are being used to bring them back to India, with the help of Ukraine’s neighbouring countries Romania, Poland, Hungary and Slovakia, the minister said while interacting with reporters in Pune.
According to Muraleedharan, the government is making all efforts to bring back all Indians safely, and these efforts are monitored by Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
“We are continuously monitoring the situation in Ukraine and for the safe evacuation of all our citizens, and after taking the review of the war on an hourly basis we are issuing advisories for our Indians who are stuck in Ukraine. Out of around 20,000 Indians of which the maximum are students, till now more than 7,000 of them have been either brought back to India or have crossed the Ukraine borders and are currently in neighbouring countries,” said Muraleedharan.
When asked about the ongoing Ukraine-Russia crisis and how the Indian government is planning to bring back our students, he further said, “As we all know that four of our union ministers have gone to nearby countries around Ukraine and are closely monitoring Operation Ganga for evacuation of our Indian citizens. But to bring back commercial flights, the capacity of the airports and flights seems to be inadequate. So, we are going to take help of Indian Air Force and through air force flights now our students will be brought back to India.”
