About 1,000 Indians In War Zones of Kharkiv & Sumy, Trying To Arrange Buses: MEA

Bagchi told the media that the buses that awaited Indians across the Russian border were "too far away."

File photo of Ministry of External Affairs spokesperson Arindam Bagchi.

(Photo Courtesy: YouTube/Screenshot)

India on Friday, 4 March, appealed for a ceasefire between Ukrainian and Russian troops in order to evacuate its citizens from conflict zones in eastern Ukraine’s Kharkiv and Sumy, adding that it had not seen any implementation of the decision to provide safe corridors for civilians to leave from either side.

Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) Spokesperson Arindam Bagchi said around 1,000 Indians were stranded in the two regions, while five buses were waiting to take a section of citizens out of Pisochyn, reported news agency PTI.

Noting that over 20,000 Indians had moved out of Ukraine since the MEA’s initial advisories in mid-February, Bagchi added that 48 flights had brought back 10,300 citizens under the government’s evacuation mission, Operation Ganga.

Bagchi further stated that the government would bear all medical expenses for the treatment of Harjot Singh, an Indian student who suffered bullet injuries in Kyiv.

He then said that India was primarily focusing on the evacuation of roughly 2,000 to 3,000 Indians out of Ukraine. Responding to a question regarding the Russian president’s comments on Ukrainian forces holding Indians hostage, Bagchi said that India had not received any such information, as per PTI.

Bagchi stated that under Operation Ganga, India had evacuated one Bangladeshi national along with Indians.

Need To See Implementation of Decision to Make Humanitarian Corridors: Bagchi

The spokesperson also said that India has not seen any movement after it emerged that Russia and Ukraine on Thursday agreed to the need for the creation of humanitarian corridors to help civilians leave the conflict zones.

"We have not seen anything further to that in terms of implementation of the same on the ground. We are closely and eagerly monitoring that," he said, commenting on the lack of visible action on either side in terms of creating safe corridors for civilians.

When asked about reports by the Russian media on having made provisions of over 130 buses for Indians to evacuate out of eastern Ukraine, Bagchi said that the buses, that are around 50-60 kilometres away from the where the students are, were “too far away.”

"We do not see a safe and secure way to reach them. I would appeal and urge the parties concerned to have a local ceasefire at least so that the students can go to the buses. We don't want the students to cross through a place where they are at risk.”

MEA Spokesperson Arindam Bagchi at a media briefing, as per PTI.

He also told the media that 15 flights carrying over 3,000 Indian nationals had landed in India over the last 24 hours under Operation Ganga, adding that 16 more flights were set to operate over the next day.

(With inputs from PTI.)