The Indian government is in talks with Russian and Ukrainian officials to push for a ceasefire after Indian students stranded in Ukraine called for evacuations, a government spokesman said on Saturday.
“We strongly urge both sides to have a ceasefire. Whether it will happen, when it will happen, is something we will see as it happens,” Arindam Bagchi, a spokesman for India’s Foreign Ministry, told a news conference on Saturday.
“But I hope it happens because it will be something useful and necessary for us, otherwise we are putting them at risk. We will continue to press on this,” she added.
At least 700 Indian students are stranded in Sumy, a city in northeastern Ukraine, according to the ministry.
Bagchi said the other main concern was transportation, as Sumy is about 30 miles from the Russian border and train lines are not operational.
Bagchi said buses or trucks would be a plausible option; however, the best exit route would be determined by on-site officials.
Meanwhile, Denis Alipov, Russian ambassador to India, said Russia responded to India’s request for help and provided “hundreds of buses”.
“We have created special groups that are ready to take the Indians to the territory of the Russian Federation and then transport them to India, but the problem is that the fighting in these areas continues and where the Indians are, our forces are not,” Alipov said. on Saturday, adding that Indian diplomats were in Belgrade, Serbia, to coordinate action on the ground.
Bagchi said he understood students’ feelings of being left behind, but urged them to remain in shelters.
The students told the CNN that the Indian embassy did not respond to his calls, but Bagchi said, “we are talking to students directly from the embassy and from our control room here.”
“If there’s a hallway, we’ll find a way to get them out,” he said. “If there is a break in the fight, I guarantee we will be able to take them out.”
Bagchi said all Indian citizens had left Kharkiv as far as the ministry was aware, but the embassy will re-analyze to identify any citizens who may have remained.
Source: CNN Brasil
I’m James Harper, a highly experienced and accomplished news writer for World Stock Market. I have been writing in the Politics section of the website for over five years, providing readers with up-to-date and insightful information about current events in politics. My work is widely read and respected by many industry professionals as well as laymen.
