All Indians stranded in Ukraine’s Sumi were evacuated: Union Minister Hardeep Singh Puri

“Last night, I checked from the control room, there were 694 Indian students remaining in Sumi. Today, they all left in buses for Poltava,” Puri told reporters as quoted by PTI.

Last week, reports claimed that more than 600 hundred students were stranded in Ukraine’s northeastern city of Sumy. The students claimed that there was acute shortage of food and water and were expected to be evacuated from the city. Sumi is located in Ukraine’s northeastern peninsula, so it was difficult for them to travel to the western border, from where they could reach neighboring Poland, Hungary, Romania, Slovakia and Moldova, from where evacuations were taking place. Meanwhile, the government also expressed ‘concern’ about Sumi.

“The border in the western part of Ukraine is located about 1,500 km from Sumy, while the Russian border is just 50 km away. The railway station in Sumy has also been closed due to the bombing, and traveling via road has been carried out since Russian It’s like committing suicide and Ukrainian forces are fighting among themselves in such places.”

Meanwhile, the students there shot a video appealing to PM Modi and the Indian government to save them. The student said that there is acute shortage of water and food. “Have not drank a drop of water since last night,” he said.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Monday discussed with Russian President Vladimir Putin and Ukrainian leader Volodymyr Zelensky ways to begin the stalled evacuation of Indian students from Ukraine’s besieged Sumy city under attack by the invading Russian military.

India has so far brought back over 17,100 of its citizens from Ukraine, while Indian students are stuck in the northeastern city of Sumy with their evacuation dependent on safe passage facilities by Russian and Ukrainian authorities.