Evacuation from Ukraine cities worst hit in focus: Centre

India on Thursday focused on efforts to get some 2,000 nationals out of eastern Ukraine, including the besieged cities of Kharkiv and Sumy, amid reports of a fresh assault and shelling by Russian forces.

 India on Thursday focused on efforts to get some 2,000 nationals out of eastern Ukraine, including the besieged cities of Kharkiv and Sumy, amid reports of a fresh assault and shelling by Russian forces.

Indian students arrive at Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj International Airport after being evacuated from war-hit Ukraine, in Mumbai on Thursday. (ANI)

There were a few hundred Indians still in Kharkiv and Sumy, while around 1,000 nationals were in Pisochyn, located 11 km from Kharkiv, and external affairs ministry spokesperson Arindam Bagchi said Indian authorities were exploring various options to move them to safety in western or southern Ukraine.

“Unfortunately, there has been a fresh outbreak of violence (on Thursday) in Kharkiv, which always makes our job much more difficult… It’s a dynamic situation,” Bagchi told a media briefing.

“We know for sure that there are more than a couple of thousand people, (including) 1,000 in Pisochyn and there are others,” he said, adding the priority is to get Indian nationals safely out of conflict zones by any possible route.

Though many Indians left Kharkiv on Wednesday after India issued an urgent advisory, “a few hundred” are estimated to be in the city. “We would urge people, subject to their safety because there is shelling and fighting, if they could come perhaps to take the train or some other mechanism and leave, (it) would be perhaps the best way,” Bagchi said.

Several Indian students who made the trek from Kharkiv to Pisochyn on foot said in videos posted on social media that they could still hear the sound of shelling. They also said they were running low on food and water. Others spoke of witnessing shelling during their trip.

Bagchi said the Indian side is in close contact with Russian and Ukrainian authorities to work out modalities for evacuation from Kharkiv, Sumy and other cities in eastern Ukraine. He said no movement is possible towards the Russian border because of the “conflict going on”.

“Our request, which has been made at the prime minister’s level and the foreign minister’s level… with the Ukrainians is to find a safe passage for our citizens,” he said. Indian teams are also in place on the Russian side of the border to facilitate evacuation.

Bagchi dismissed suggestions that the Russian side had coordinated with the Indian side on holding off the shelling of Kharkiv for a certain period of time on Wednesday to allow Indians to move out of the city. He said the Indian side had advised its nationals to leave Kharkiv after getting “specific inputs” from Russia on routes and places where the Indians should go by a certain time.

“But extrapolating that to say that somebody is holding off bombing or that...we are coordinating that, I think is absolutely inaccurate,” he added.

Bagchi said an estimated 18,000 Indians had left Ukraine since India issued its initial advisories, and this figure included nationals who hadn’t registered with the embassy in Kyiv. Around 3,000 Indians were brought back since Wednesday on 15 evacuation flights from Budapest in Hungary, Bucharest in Romania, Kosice in Slovakia and Rzeszow in Poland.

A total of 30 evacuation flights had brought back 6,400 Indians, and 18 more flights were scheduled for Thursday and Friday. Two of these flights will be operated from Suceava in Romania, located close to the Ukrainian border, obviating the need for Indians to go all the way to Bucharest.

India has also sent three tranches of humanitarian aid for Ukraine to Poland, and a fourth tranche to Romania. The relief materials include medicines, medical equipment, tents, blankets and solar lamps.

“I would like to take this opportunity to appreciate the Ukrainian government for facilitating the evacuation of our nationals despite their own challenges,” Bagchi said. “I would also like to thank Ukraine’s neighbours for making the extra effort and hosting our people and all the support in evacuating them,” he added.