Indian students stranded at a medical college hostel in the northeastern Ukrainian city of Sumy were told to “be ready to leave on short notice” by the Indian Embassy.
“Team from Embassy of India is stationed in Poltava City to coordinate the safe passage of Indian students stranded in Sumy to Western borders via Poltava,” said the embassy in a tweet.
“Confirmed time and date will be issued soon. Indian students advised to be ready to leave on short notice.”
The students say that they could no longer cope with the nail-biting cold, depleting food supplies and melting snow to get drinking water as the evacuation is getting delayed.
“The main challenges in the evacuation of Indians from Sumy are ongoing shelling, violence and the lack of transportation,” the foreign ministry said on Saturday.
Earlier on Saturday, the stranded students shared videos saying they had decided to take a risky journey to the Russian border 50 kilometres away. However, they decided to stay put after the government contacted them and advised them to “avoid unnecessary risks”.
However, the Indian government has urged Ukraine and Russia to impose a ceasefire in the northeastern Ukrainian city to evacuate around 700 students trapped after Russian troops invaded Ukraine in late February. Foreign ministry spokesman Arindam Bagchi told reporters that their evacuation was hampered because of fighting in the area.
So far, India has brought back over 15,920 of its nationals in 76 flights under mission “Operation Ganga”.
