The government said the students would be taken to western Ukraine in a special train and that Operation Ganga flights were being arranged to bring them back to India.
The biggest challenge for India was Russia And Ukraine is working step by step with each other to evacuate the students. According to official sources, this was made possible by hectic diplomatic activities after Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s back-to-back talks with the President. Vladimir Putin and his Ukrainian counterpart Volodymyr Zelensky.
External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar spoke to Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dimitro Kuleba and Foreign Secretary Harsh Shringla and again called upon the Russian and Ukrainian ambassadors, Denis Alipov and Igor Polikha, to persuade them to provide a safe passage to the students.
In addition to the Foreign Ministry, the Defense Ministry was also in contact with officials from both Russia and Ukraine to assist with the evacuation efforts. A team of senior government officials was also sent to Ukraine to help with the evacuation, as one source said, Endgame.
“It was not as easy as arranging almost everything and anything – drivers, fuel, buses – was a daunting task. Our estimate was that 10-12 buses would be needed for the evacuation, but eventually we were able to find something else. We were successful in,” said a source involved in the evacuation efforts.
The Indian embassy is still asking all Indian nationals in Ukraine to use humanitarian corridors, as announced from 10 am on Tuesday, using any available transport service and paying “due attention to security”. To vacate. It said the establishment of the next such corridor is uncertain in view of the security situation.
“Happy to share that we have been able to get all Indian students out of Sumi. They are currently en route to Poltava, from where they will board trains to Western Ukraine. Flights under Operation Ganga are being prepared to bring them home,” tweeted Arindam Bagchi, spokesperson of the Ministry of External Affairs.
While Russia announced a ceasefire in Sumy on Monday, Ukraine rejected it, saying it wanted civilians to be evacuated to Ukrainian territory, not Russia. This meant that India had to cancel all evacuation plans for Monday and wait for a green signal from both Russia and Ukraine to resume operations. Official sources did not rule out the possibility of a few more students remaining in eastern Ukraine, but said they had strong “personal reasons” for not leaving the country for now.
“We call on Russia to uphold its ceasefire commitment, refrain from activities that endanger people’s lives and allow humanitarian assistance,” Ukraine said in its declaration. ,