External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar on Tuesday said that evacuation of Indian students from Sumy in Ukraine was extremely complex and needed a credible ceasefire which finally materialised due to the personal intervention of Prime Minister Narendra Modi with the presidents of Ukraine and Russia.
Making a statement on 'Situation in Ukraine' in both Houses of Parliament, Jaishankar said the Prime Minister took up the "issue of safe evacuation of Indians, especially from Kharkiv and Sumy".
The Prime Minister had spoken to both Russian President Vladimir Putin and Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy on March 7. He had spoken to the two leaders earlier also in the wake of the conflict in Ukraine and for the safe evacuation of Indian students.
"The Sumy evacuation, which was the last one on a significant scale, was also extremely complex as our students faced the prospect of being caught in the crossfire. Their evacuation from the city needed a credible ceasefire, a daunting challenge in the current situation," Jaishankar said.
"This finally materialized due to the personal intervention of the Prime Minister himself with the Presidents of Ukraine and Russia. Noting the extraordinary challenges before us, we also dispatched a special team of senior officers to the vicinity of Sumy. Their coordination with the military forces deployed there, with the ICRC and the arrangement of logistics was responsible for the final outcome," he added.
The minister said during the entire period, India's Embassy in Ukraine has been working incessantly to contact Indian nationals, arranging and facilitating transport, coordinating with local authorities, providing food.
"Throughout the evacuation exercise, our Embassy was in constant touch with the Ukrainian authorities. We appreciate their positive response to our requests during this period. Their intervention was responsible for running additional trains needed for the evacuation exercise. The Embassy also provided travel documents within a very very short time in cases where Indian nationals had lost their passports," Jaishankar said.
"They also partnered with neighbouring Embassies to resolve challenging situations on the border. On March 13, in view of the rapidly deteriorating security situation in Ukraine, including attacks in its western part, it was decided to temporarily relocate the Indian Embassy in Ukraine to Poland. This situation will be reassessed in light of further developments," he added.
Jaishankar said the Prime Minister also spoke to his counterparts of Romania, Slovak Republic, Hungary and the President of Poland to seek support for the facilitation in the entry of Indians to their countries.
India has evacuated around 22,500 stranded citizens from Ukraine. India has also evacuated citizens from the neighbouring countries including Bangladesh and Nepal.Buses and trains brought Indians to the western borders of Ukraine and they were flown to India through flights that took off from Bucharest, Budapest, Suceava, and Warsaw.
( With inputs from ANI )
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