Shelling, lack of transport challenge evacuation efforts from Ukraine

Ministry and our embassies are in regular touch with the students: Arindam Bagchi

An Indian student (left) evacuated from Ukraine being greeted by relatives at Delhi airport on Saturday.: PTI Photo

Anita Joshua   |   TT  |  New Delhi   |    06.03.22  :  Russia’s announcement of a temporary ceasefire to facilitate evacuations through the Ukrainian cities of Mariupol and Volnovakha on Saturday brought no relief for the 700 Indian students stranded in Sumy, with shelling in the neighbourhood preventing any transport reaching them.

“The problem is the bombing in their area. The problem is the first five kilometres,” external affairs ministry spokesperson Arindam Bagchi said.

“If walking to a safe destination was an option, we would have advised them to do so the way we told those stuck in Kharkiv earlier this week. If a similar option was available, we would have exercised it. But it is not possible here right now.”

Bagchi earlier in the day had to step in to urge the students to “avoid unnecessary risk” after a large group from the Sumy State University announced through a video message that they were going to start walking to Mariupol, 600km away. The students, who have no water and very little food, said they had heard “bombarding, shelling, street fights” since morning.

The students said this would be their last video: “We are risking our lives. We are moving towards (the) border. If anything happens to us, all the responsibility will be for the government and Indian embassy…. We need our government right now. Bharat Mata ki jai.”

Bagchi, clearly taken aback by the risk the students were planning to take in sheer desperation, tweeted: “We are deeply concerned about Indian students in Sumy, Ukraine. Have strongly pressed Russian and Ukrainian governments through multiple channels for an immediate ceasefire to create a safe corridor for our students. Have advised our students to take safety precautions, stay inside shelters and avoid unnecessary risks. Ministry and our embassies are in regular touch with the students.”

We are deeply concerned about Indian students in Sumy, Ukraine. Have strongly pressed Russian and Ukrainian governments through multiple channels for an immediate ceasefire to create a safe corridor for our students.

— Arindam Bagchi (@MEAIndia) March 5, 2022

Following the urgent appeal, the students told The Telegraph that they had not gone ahead with their plan and were waiting for the government to make arrangements.

“We were told to wait for some time and (advised) that our evacuation will be done,” Sheikh Mohammad Daish, a fourth-year student, said.

Hours later, the situation had not changed and Bagchi used the daily news conference to once again urge the students to stay put.

“We are urging both sides to have a local ceasefire because that is necessary to pull out our students without putting them at risk,” he said.

Sumy remains the biggest concern for the Indian evacuation effort as all those stuck in Kharkiv city and the Pisochyn area in the same province were expected to be moved towards the western border exit points by Saturday night.

On the Russian announcement in the morning of a humanitarian corridor through the strategic port city of Mariupol in the southeast and Volnovakha in the east, Bagchi flagged reports that claimed it did not hold.

While the Ukrainian President’s office said the evacuation effort was stopped because Mariupol faced shelling from Russia on Saturday, the Russian news agency Tass was quoted as saying the evacuation was postponed because the neo-Nazi “Azov” battalion of Ukraine was not allowing people to leave the port city.

Bagchi said a total of 13,300 Indians had been brought back since the bombing began on February 24. Another 13 flights have been scheduled for Sunday.

Now that most of those registered with the embassy in Ukraine have left the country and those from Kharkiv are heading for exit points, the government is trying to find out whether any more Indians are stuck anywhere in Ukraine outside the group in Sumy.