130 Russian buses are ready to evacuate Indian students and other foreigners from Ukraine's Kharkiv and Sumy to Russia's Belgorod Region, Russian National Defense Control Center Head Colonel General Mikhail Mizintsev announced on Thursday.
"A total of 130 comfortable buses are ready to depart to Kharkiv and Sumy from the Nekhoteyevka and Sudzha checkpoints in the Belgorod Region since 6 AM today in order to rescue Indian students and citizens of other foreign states," he said.
It is also reported that places for temporary accommodation and rest have been set up at the checkpoints. The refugees will be provided with hot meals; mobile clinics have also been set up there with a stockpile of medicine, reported Russian News Agency TASS.
"The evacuees will be then transported to the city of Belgorod for subsequent departure to their homeland by air, including via Russian military airplanes," said General Mizintsev.
On February 24, Russian President Vladimir Putin announced that in response to a request by the heads of the Donbas republics, he had made a decision to carry out a special military operation in Ukraine.
Meanwhile, the UN said that one million people have now fled Ukraine since Russia's military operations.
The tally from the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees amounts to more than 2 per cent of Ukraine's population -- which the World Bank counted at 44 million at the end of 2020.
The agency cautions that the outflows are far from finished. It has been predicted that as many as four million people could eventually leave Ukraine.
( With inputs from ANI )
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