India's permanent representative to the UN TS Tirumurti at the UN General Assembly reiterated India's demand of safe and uninterrupted passage for all Indian nationals including students, particularly from Kharkiv and other conflict zones
India on Wednesday abstained from voting on resolution against Russia over its invasion of Ukraine at the United Nations General Assembly. “India is deeply concerned about deteriorating situation in Ukraine. An Indian national was killed in Kharkiv yesterday. We express our deepest condolences to his family & to every civilian who has lost his/her life in this conflict,” TS Tirumurti, India's permanent representative to the United Nations, said.
“We demand safe & uninterrupted passage for all Indian nationals including our students, particularly from Kharkiv and other conflict zones. My government has deployed senior ministers to neighbouring countries of Ukraine to facilitate evacuation,” he added.
Kharkiv, the second largest city of Ukraine, has been the epicentre of fighting between the Russian and Ukrainian forces. According to government estimates, at least 4,000 Indian nationals are stranded in Kharkiv and other eastern Ukrainian cities.
We thank all neighbouring countries of Ukraine for opening their border and extending all facilities to our Embassies at this time, the Indian envoy to UN added.
India has been carrying out evacuations via neighbouring countries like Poland, Hungary, Romania, Slovakia which share borders with Ukraine.
Earlier, India on February 26 had abstained from a United Nations Security Council resolution deploring Russian attack on Kyiv, while asserting the need for respecting sovereignty and territorial integrity of states and adopting the path of diplomacy.