Indian Foreign Secretary Harsh Vardhan Shringla
New Delhi: Foreign Secretary Harsh Vardhan Shringla said on Tuesday that all Indian nationals have left Kyiv and nearly 60 per cent of Indians in Ukraine have left the country so far.
He said out of an estimated 20,000 Indian citizens in Ukraine, 60 per cent have left the country since the first advisory was issued by the government. "Of the remaining 40 per cent, roughly half remain in the conflict zone in Kharkiv and the other half have either reached the western border of Ukraine or are heading towards the western border. They are generally out of conflict areas," Shringla said.
India has evacuated 1,377 citizens from war-torn Ukraine in the past 24 hours, External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar said on Wednesday.
"Six flights have now departed for India in the last 24 hours, including the first flights from Poland. Carried back 1377 more Indian nationals from Ukraine," Mr Jaishankar said in a tweet.
Under Operation Ganga, launched to evacuate citizens in Ukraine, India will operate over 26 flights in the next three days. With Ukraine's airspace closed, airports in Romania, Hungary, Poland, and the Slovak Republic are being used to fly out Indians..
Russia has launched an offensive on civilian areas in several cities and asked Kyiv residents to flee their homes. Satellite images showed a long convoy of Russian troops on the roads leading to Kyiv. Hundreds of tanks, towed artillery, armored and logistical vehicles can be seen in the images released by a US-based space technology company.
Around 16,000 Indian students are still stranded in Ukraine. Since the Russian forces launched their invasion of Ukraine on Thursday, stranded students have been desperately seeking help through media and social media, forwarding videos of their plight from railway stations, border posts, and bunkers. Alleging manhandling, they said they were not being allowed to board trains.
Around 9,000 Indian nationals have left by various special flights.
Russia launched its invasion of Ukraine on Thursday after months of tension over the former Soviet Republic's proximity to NATO.