Officials Exploring Possibility Of Evacuating More Citizens Amid Partial Ceasefire Announcement

Indian officials deployed to evacuate Indians stranded in Ukraine on Saturday said that even though the ceasefire does not extend to eastern Ukraine efforts will be made to extract citizens.

People familiar with the developments told CNNNews18 that India is in touch with both Russia and Ukraine to try and evacuate Indians from Sumy.

Students stuck in Sumy earlier told CNNNews18 that airstrikes and bombardments continue in Sumy, an eastern Ukrainian city and more than 500 Indians remain stuck in the city where hostilities have shown no signs of abating.

Students in Sumy earlier also spoke to CNNNews18 on Friday and said that they are running low on food stocks, essentials and are in anxiety as electricity, water and heating lines are inoperative due to continuous Russian shelling. Two students speaking to CNNNews18 pleaded to the government seeking immediate rescue from the war-torn nation.

Meanwhile, the Union ministry of external affairs spokesperson Arindam Bagchi asked students in Sumy to not worry and all steps are being taken to evacuate them. He also announced that 298 students stuck in Kharkiv’s Pisochyn will soon be evacuated after they sent an SOS earlier on Saturday.

Earlier the Russian defence ministry announced that it will open two humanitarian corridors for five hours in Mariupol and Volnovakha. The Russian defence ministry said that the corridor will remain open for 5 hours starting 10am Moscow local time to 2pm Moscow local time.

The Russian defence ministry said that they are announcing the partial ceasefire to ensure that civilians are evacuated. An official of the local administration of Ukraine’s Mariupol said that the ceasefire will be used to restore critical services to the city. The official told Sputnik News agency that essentials and food items will be given to the locals in Mariupol.

The use of a humanitarian corridor was discussed during the second round of peace talks in Belarus’ Brest. The Ukrainian delegation demanded that humanitarian corridor and ceasefire for evacuating civilians.

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