E-Paper
Another Indian alert asks citizens to leave Ukraine immediately
Some nationals have already left Ukraine following the previous advisory issued on October 19. The two most recent advisories, issued by the Indian embassy in Kyiv, followed another issued on October 10 that had urged Indians to avoid all non-essential travel to and within Ukraine.
India on Tuesday advised its nationals in Ukraine to immediately leave the country by available means, the second such advisory in less than a week following a deterioration in the security situation and escalation in hostilities.
Some nationals have already left Ukraine following the previous advisory issued on October 19. The two most recent advisories, issued by the Indian embassy in Kyiv, followed another issued on October 10 that had urged Indians to avoid all non-essential travel to and within Ukraine.
“In continuation of the advisory issued by the Embassy on 19 October 2022, all Indian citizens in Ukraine are advised to immediately leave Ukraine by available means. Some Indian nationals have already left Ukraine pursuant to earlier advisory,” the embassy said in a statement posted on Twitter.
The embassy asked Indian nationals to contact specified numbers at the mission in Kyiv for guidance and assistance to travel to the border. It said citizens could refer to the embassy’s website for available options with regard to border crossings.
Indian nationals can also contact the country’s embassies in Hungary, Poland, Romania and Slovakia for assistance, the mission in Kyiv said.
The Indian move came eight months after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and Russia’s claims that Ukraine plans to use a so-called “dirty bomb”. Officials from Western countries such as the US and the UK have dismissed these claims as a Russian “false-flag operation”. Ukraine’s armed forces have also said that they had liberated four settlements in the Donbas region.
The earlier advisory of October 19 was issued following a sharp increase in Russian drone and missile strikes targeting Ukraine’s energy infrastructure and residential buildings in Kyiv and several other cities. That advisory had also advised Indian nationals against travelling to Ukraine.
There has been no official word on the number of Indians currently in Ukraine, though people familiar with the matter said a few hundreds were believed to be in the country. This includes students who had returned to Ukraine in recent months to resume their classes.
Following the Russian invasion in February, India brought back more than 22,500 citizens, most of them medical and engineering students. Thousands were evacuated in harrowing conditions by road and railway to neighbouring countries such as Poland and Romania and then put on special flights to India.
