Stay inside, govt pressing for ceasefire: Centre's message to students in Sumy

Sumy is a city in northeastern Ukraine where around 800 medical students are stuck. With heavy shelling outside, the students are stuck inside their hostel with all essential resources having already run out.

India is deeply concerned over the situation of the Indian students in Ukraine's Sumy amid non-stop fighting between Ukraine and Russian forces. The ministry of external affairs on Saturday issued a statement saying that the government has urged the students to take safety precautions and stay inside shelters. The government has strongly pressed Russian and Ukrainian governments through multiple channels for an immediate ceasefire to create a safe corridor, the ministry said.

The Indian Embassy in Ukraine issued a message on Saturday morning assuring the students stranded in Sumy that the government is exploring all possible mechanisms to evacuate them.

Sumy is a city in northeastern Ukraine where around 800 medical students are stuck. In several videos posted on social media, they have sent SOS messages to the government for their immediate evacuation as the city is under attack. With heavy shelling outside, the students are confined in the hostels of the Medical Institute of Sumy State University with all essential resources running out.

The Indian Embassy in Ukraine issued a message on Saturday morning assuring the students stranded in Sumy that the government is exploring all possible mechanisms to evacuate them. "Discussed evacuation and identification of exit routes with all interlocutors including Red Cross. Control room will continue to be active until all our citizens are evacuated. Be safe, be strong," the embassy said.

On Saturday, Russia announced a limited ceasefire to allow evacuation in Mariupol and Volnovakha which were encircled by its troops, Russia's RIA news agency reported.

The Ukrainian government said the plan was to evacuate around 200,000 people from Mariupol and 15,000 from Volnovakha, and the Red Cross is the ceasefire's guarantor. "Temporary ceasefire begins in Mariupol and Volnovakha to set up humanitarian corridors. The corridors will serve to evacuate civilians and deliver food and medicine to the cities that have been cut off from the world by Russian attackers," tweeted The Kyiv Independent, a Ukraine media outlet.