All efforts on rescuing stranded Indians in Sumy: Putin

Moscow: Russian President Vladimir Putin has assured Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi that his forces are in full effort to rescue stranded Indians from the war-hit Ukrainian city of Sumy, PTI reported citing Putin's office.

Modi expressed his deep concern over Indian citizens' safety through a 50-minute phone call with Putin, and the former had requested the latter for their earliest possible evacuation.

Nearly 700 Indian students are reportedly stranded in Sumy as severe battle gin on between Russian and Ukrainian forces here. India had requested both fronts to create a humanitarian corridor for its citizens' evacuation.

"It has been noted that the Indian students who were held by the radicals in Kharkiv managed to leave the city only as a result of strong international pressure on the Kyiv authorities," the Kremlin said, according to TASS news.

Russian military personnel are making every effort to ensure the evacuation of Indian citizens from the city of Sumy," Kremlin said. Meanwhile, PM Modi thanked Russia's evacuation efforts, the news report said.

The Indian External Affairs Ministry had said on Saturday that India is mainly focusing on evacuating students from Sumy. It had added that the evacuation of Indians from Kharkiv and Pisochy was almost complete. It said it had requested both the warring fronts for a ceasefire for smoother evacuations. The challenges in the process are shelling, violence in Sumy and lack of transportation.

Indian students in Sumy had posted a video last week saying that they are heading to the Russian borders, and if anything happens to them, the Indian government and its embassy in Ukraine will be responsible. But the embassy advised them not to move, and the students stayed there.