Modi speaks to Putin; efforts on to bring back 15,000 stranded citizens

Embassy in Ukraine started registration of Indians several days ago: Foreign secretary

As war broke out between Russia and Ukraine, Prime Minister Narendra Modi spoke to Russian President Vladimir Putin and the government acted in concert to oversee the evacuation of around 15,000 Indians, mostly students.  Officials were despatched to all neighbouring countries and in three rapid advisories, students were given guidelines to protect themselves, not travel in the direction of some areas of the country and contact Indian officials waiting on all Ukrainian borders. The Indian Air Force is on standby to evacuate passengers from neighbouring countries. The Ukraine airport remains closed. An Air India flight going to Ukraine turned back for Delhi on Thursday morning. Flight trackers on the internet show no commercial aircraft in Ukrainian airspace. 

In a special briefing Foreign Secretary Harshvardhan Shringla explained that an Operations Room had been working for a week and the Indian Embassy in Ukraine had begun registration of Indians several days ago. This was in response to state governments, especially those ruled by non-Congress governments,which began ratcheting up their demand that the Centre step up evacuation efforts to ‘bring our children back’.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi held a meeting of the Cabinet Committee on Security (CCS) at which Defence Minister Rajnath Singh, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, and Home Minister Amit Shah were briefed by Foreign Minister S Jaishankar, who was in France for a meeting of EU leaders (France holds the presidency) but returned home. 

The Indian Mission asked Indians to be aware of the surroundings, be safe, not leave homes unless necessary and stressed on carrying their documents at all times.

Ukraine’s ambassador in New Delhi sought ‘Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s intervention’ with Putin to ask Russia to pull back its troops. But the Opposition Congress described India’s position as equivocation.

“India should unequivocally condemn Russian invasion of Ukraine in unambiguous terms. There comes a time when you need to tell ‘friends’ they can’t indulge in regime change. India’s conduct of international relations should be characterised by calling a spade a spade,” said Congress MP Manish Tewari, asking, "In the 21st century, can you change the status quo by force?" Congress MP Vivek Tankha said he had written to the government last week asking it to escalate evacuation of Indians from Ukraine but the government acted when it was too late.  

External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar with French President Emmanuel Macron, during a meeting in Paris Photo: PTI

 

Describing conditions in Ukraine, third-year doctorate of medicine (MD) student Nikheta Francis, who was studying at the Bogomolets National Medical University in Kyiv but returned home in anticipation of a war, told Business Standard many of her classmates are still stuck there.

"So far the university was offering online classes which got cancelled on Thursday after the attack. Classes will remain cancelled until further notice, even as the university has asked students to stay safe and be packed and ready. However, this was not the scenario even until Wednesday, despite media frenzy," said Francis, who returned to Ahmedabad a week ago via an Air Arabia flight from Kyiv to Hyderabad via Sharjah.

Social media posts claimed that around 200 students were stranded outside the Indian Embassy in Kyiv.

According to the Indian Embassy in Kyiv, over 18,000 students from India are in Ukraine studying medicine or engineering, forming roughly 24 per cent of total international students.

However, the attacks have not dampened Indian students' spirit or preference for studying in Ukraine, even as they wait for things to normalise, said M Kalidhas, director of Mediseats Abroad, a leading Chennai-based medical education consultant, specialising in counselling and providing career guidance for students who want to become medical professionals. A large number of the Indian students in Ukraine are from Tamil Nadu or Kerala.

Both state governments are run by Opposition parties and Kerala was first off the bat to ask the Centre to speed up evacuation and bring back Indians stranded in the strife-hit country.

"Of so many Indian students in Ukraine, hardly a few hundred have returned. There was not much panic until Thursday and universities have also assured that classes will resume at the earliest, in the hope of returning to normalcy. Also, with flight fares being very high, it is not an easy decision to come back," said Kalidhas.

Seconding Kalidhas, Francis said some of her classmates have, therefore, booked flights for as late as May, hoping to return to their universities, given that the third and sixth year of their MD programmes are crucial years in their medical education.

"We flew 182 students from Ukraine to Delhi on Thursday. We have six more flights planned to Delhi until March 3 and 1,500 students have booked to travel. The Ukrainian airspace is closed. We have to wait and watch for now," said Isha Goyal, chief executive officer, Stic Travel Group, India representative of Ukraine International Airlines.