More than 20,000 Indian citizens were in Ukraine before the Russian offensive. Most have left the country but several thousand students would still be blocked in areas of conflict.
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The call of the India Embassy in Ukraine, launched Wednesday, March 2nd to his nationals, sparked the fright. Written in capital letters, he called all Indian students still in Kharkiv to “evacuate immediately” the city located in eastern Ukraine, even if you walk about ten kilometers on foot. The death of a medical student, the day before, in Kharkiv, had already deeply moved the country: Naveen, 21, was the victim of a Russian bombardment Tuesday, while he was released buying provisions. Another was injured by bullets on Sunday, when he tried to flee the capital, Kiev.
Before the Russian offensive, more than 20,000 Indians were in Ukraine. Most are medical students from the middle class who have chosen this country, especially because this curriculum is more affordable than in India. The poignant testimonials of these thousands of students, blocked under difficult conditions, continue to flock. And their loved ones implore the government to bring them healthy and sounds.
“Evacu ourselves, please. We want to go home”, begs Mohammed Mehtab Reza, a fourth-year student of medicine blocked in Soumy, in the east of Ukraine, about forty kilometers from the Russian border. The young man, contacted Thursday by phone, says to be without news from his embassy for four days. “We can not leave the city, the tanks are in the streets, we hear the shots and the air attacks,” he continues, in tears, before hanging up to shelter in the basement.
Indians and Nigerians taken at part
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, and Russian President Vladimir Putin, spoke on telephone, Wednesday, about the evacuation of Indian citizens. The Russian side “tries to organize an emergency evacuation of a group of Indian students from Kharkiv via a humanitarian corridor” to Russia, according to the Kremlin. The Russian authorities claimed that these students were deducted from Ukraine and used as human shields. An accusation denied by India, who welcomed the help of the Ukrainian authorities.
A large part of the Ukraine Indians and more than 10,000 people have been brought back to India from Romania, Hungary, Poland or Slovakia, as part of a vast evacuation operation called Ganga. Four Ministers from the Government of Narendra Modi were dispatched Monday in these neighboring countries of Ukraine to coordinate repatriation efforts.
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