Ukraine: An Indian student lost his life in Russian shelling in Kharkiv city of war-hit Ukraine on Tuesday. He has been identified as Naveen Shekharappa Gyanagoudar, 20, from Haveri, Karnataka. He was a fourth-year medical student at the Kharkiv National Medical University in Kharkiv. In a tweet, External Affairs Ministry Spokesperson Arindam Bagchi wrote: “With profound sorrow, we confirm that an Indian student lost his life in shelling in Kharkiv this morning. The Ministry is in touch with his family. We convey our deepest condolences to the family.”
A number of Indians are still stranded in Kharkiv where Russia has launched a major military offensive. The MEA said the foreign secretary is calling in ambassadors of Russia and Ukraine to reiterate India’s demand for “urgent safe passage” to Indian nationals who are still in Kharkiv and other cities in conflict zones. On Tuesday morning, the Indian Embassy urged all citizens, including students, to leave Ukraine’s capital Kyiv “urgently today, by trains or any other means available”.
India began an evacuation of around 14,000 of its stranded citizens on February 26th. To scale up the rescue operations, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday asked the Indian Air Force (IAF) to evacuate Indians. The IAF is likely to deploy several C-17 aircraft as part of Operation Ganga from Tuesday, sources said. Around 8,000 Indian nationals have left by various special flights. Till now, only private Indian carriers were evacuating Indians from Romania and Hungary, countries with land borders with Ukraine on the western side, as the Ukrainian airspace had been shut since February 24th.