New Delhi: The Indian embassy in Ukraine has issued an urgent advisory asking all its citizens to leave Kharkiv immediately. Under all circumstances, they must reach Pesochin, Babaye and Bezlyudovka settlements, the embassy said. The advisory comes amid a huge shortage of public transport in the war-torn city, which has a population of 1.4 million. The Indian embassy in a tweet said, “For their safety and security they must leave Kharkiv immediately. Proceed to Pesochin, Babaye and Bezlyudovka as soon as possible.” Pesochin is 11.6 km from Kharkiv, Babaye is 16.6 km and Bezlyudovka is 91 km away — distances impossible to cover on foot amid the shelling.
There were around 20,000 students/citizens who were stranded in Ukraine. Of them, 4,000 were brought back to India before February 24th. Additional 2,000 students were brought back to India till Tuesday and efforts are on to evacuate the remaining Indians stuck there. Earlier, the Indian embassy in Poland had also issued an urgent advisory to Indian nationals in war-torn Ukraine, urging them to travel at the earliest to the Budomierz border for a quick entry into Poland. A similar advisory was issued on March 1st for Indian citizens in Kyiv, asking them to leave the capital city, preferably by “available trains or through any other means available”.
Since Russia invaded Ukraine on February 24th, the Indian government has been coordinating efforts to evacuate all Indian nationals in the country via Poland, Romania, Hungary and other neighbouring countries under Operation Ganga. The Ukrainian forces said that on Tuesday, Russians hit a residential block and a government building in the city, killing 18 people. One of the casualties was an Indian student.