The much awaited evacuation of Indian students stranded at Sumy in eastern Ukraine was cancelled in the last minute on Monday.
The evacuation of the Indian students was cancelled after several ceasefire violations reported from the city of Sumy.
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Notably, around 700 Indian students are left stranded at Sumy in eastern Ukraine region as fighting between the Ukrainian forces and Russian invading forces intensified over the past few days.
Notably, when the Indian students were about to board the buses arranged for their evacuation, were asked to head back to their hostels following ceasefire violations.
“The buses arranged by the Indian embassy arrived by around 10AM this morning. We all got ready and just as we began boarding the bus the officials received a call about a ceasefire violation. We were asked to get back into our hostel. We are all dejected,” a student was quoted as saying by The News Minute.
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The Indian embassy in Ukraine has deployed a team in Poltava city in central Ukraine to coordinate evacuation of Indian students stranded in Sumy Oblast.
“A team from the Embassy of India is stationed in Poltava city to coordinate the safe passage of Indian students stranded in Sumy to western borders via Poltava,” the Indian Embassy in Ukraine stated.
On Sunday, humanitarian assistance was provided to the stranded foreign students, including Indian, at Sumy in eastern Ukraine.
The humanitarian assistance was provided by the Red Cross Ukraine in coordination with Indian World Forum.
The foreign students, including Indian, were provided with water and other essential supplies.
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Earlier, Ukraine’s foreign minister Dymtro Kuleba, while responding to a query on evacuation of Indian students, who are stranded in ‘battle zones’ Kharkiv and Sumy, said that the Indian government should pressurise Russia to stop bombardment to evacuate stranded civilians.
“The governments of India, China, Nigeria – whose students are locked out in Sumy and Kharkiv – I urge you to ask Moscow to stop fire and allow civilians to leave through Ukrainian territory,” Kuleba said.
He said that Russia is trying to “earn sympathies” of India, China and Nigeria by “accusing Ukraine of keeping these students as hostages, of violating their rights and of discriminating against them”.