Security experts in India have asked Indian nationals in war-hit areas of Ukraine to leave for safer places after an Indian student lost his life in shelling in Kharkiv city on Tuesday.
They call the incident unfortunate collateral damage in the ongoing Russia-Ukraine crisis.
Major General (Retd) K K Sinha said, "The thing is that you have been told not to come out. He might have gone to the Kharkiv supermarket there. He must have gone to buy some food. There are many kinds of casualties. Collateral damage is always there."
Naveen Shekharappa, a medical student from Karnataka's Haveri died when Russian soldiers blew up a government building in Kharkiv this morning. Naveen was standing outside a grocery store when he was hit.
Sinha said, "See these people are not leaving in spite of all these advisories. Even through the media, we were telling them to please leave because it is a serious matter. The advisory is that people should just tag along with Russians as 80 per cent of Kharkiv and Kyiv are Russian and they all are on the Russian side".
News of the student's death came within an hour of the Indian embassy in Ukraine asking its citizens to urgently leave the capital Kyiv. "Advisory to Indians in Kyiv- All Indian nationals including students are advised to leave Kyiv urgently today. Preferably by available trains or through any other means available (sic)," a statement from the embassy read.
Security experts are advising students on various options to protect themselves.
"If they can't leave it is better to go to some place which is midway, in my judgment in the rural areas. They will give the shelter. There are churches, not the Roman Catholic Churches but there are Churches," said Sinha.
Russian and Ukrainian troops continued to engage in fighting in Ukraine's second-largest city Kharkiv on the sixth day since Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered the invasion.
The Ukrainian presidential advisor said Russian troops are trying to lay siege to the capital Kyiv and Kharkiv. There were reports of a 40-mile convoy of tanks and other vehicles threatening the capital -- tactics Ukraine's embattled president Volodymyr Zelenskyy said were designed to force him into concessions in Europe's largest ground war in generations.
The Indian government launched Operation Ganga to rescue Indian citizens, mostly students, from Ukraine, which was invaded by Russia six days ago.
( With inputs from ANI )
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