All Indian Students Stuck In Ukraine’s Sumy Evacuated, Flights Being Readied to Fly Them Home

All Indian citizens who were stranded in Ukraine’s Sumy, where hostilities have surged following Russia’s military operation in Ukraine, were evacuated on Tuesday, Ministry of External Affairs said.

“Happy to inform that we have been able to move out all Indian students from Sumy. They are currently en route to Poltava, from where they will board trains to western Ukraine. Flights under #OperationGanga are being prepared to bring them home,” said Arindam Bagchi, official spokesperson of Ministry of External Affairs, in a tweet on Tuesday evening.

More than 600 students are currently en route to Poltava, from where they will board trains to western Ukraine. From there they are expected to fly back to India via flights under the Operation Ganga rescue mission.

“A humanitarian corridor to evacuate civilians, including foreign students, from Sumy to Poltava has been agreed today. We call on Russia to uphold its ceasefire commitment, to refrain from activities that endanger the lives of people and to allow the delivery of humanitarian aid,” the Ukrainian foreign ministry was quoted as saying.

Union minister Hardeep Singh Puri had also confirmed that 694 students are onboard buses which are evacuating them from Sumy. “They will be taken to Poltava in Ukraine,” he had said.

The Ukraine foreign ministry had said that “civilians, including foreign students, from Sumy to Poltava are on board buses and are being evacuated.”

The Russian embassy in India had also shared the message put out by the Joint Coordination Headquarters of the Russian Federation for Humanitarian Response in Ukraine which said that “humanitarian corridors are being reopened for the safe evacuation of citizens from Kyiv, Kharkiv, Sumy and Mariupol”.

Students stuck in Sumy had reached out to CNNNews18, News18 and other news agencies as well, urging the government to evacuate them immediately as Russian shelling led to power cuts, water shortage and disruptions to the city’s heating systems. Food and other essential commodities were also scarce as incessant fighting ensured that civilians could not leave bomb shelters.

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