India students from Sumy to leave via Poland: embassy
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New Delhi: The Indian Embassy in Ukraine has informed that Indian students stranded in Sumy city are likely flown home on Thursday. The students, who were sheltering inside Sumy State University in northeast Ukraine, have boarded a train from Lviv to Poland on Wednesday, The Indian Express (TIE) reported.
The special evacuation train was flagged off by Indian Ambassador Partha Satpathy. "Ambassador flags off special train with 600 Indian students from Sumy University at Lviv Railway Station. They will travel to Poland and are expected to board evacuation flights to India tomorrow. Be Safe Be Strong," the embassy posted on Twitter.
The embassy, in other tweets, said that Ukraine authorities had helped it to arrange the train. The rescue mission will continue to move students out of the conflict-hit country, and bringing them back home will be their priority.
TIE reports that rescuing Indian students from Sumy was challenging for the Indian government.
India had initiated "Operation Ganga" to rescue those stranded in Ukraine. Till Tuesday, 83 flights have operated, and 17,100 people reached back home. Now, the government had requested the remaining stranded o use the humanitarian corridors and stated that the availability of such corridors is always uncertain.
Narendra Modi has requested both Russian President Vladimir Putin and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy to facilitate the safe evacuation of people from Sumy. The city has been facing intense attacks in the past few days.
Evacuation in Sumy was also enabled after the joint efforts of many. Indian Foreign Secretary Harsh Vardhan Shringla spoke to the Ukrainian deputy foreign minister as well as the Russian and Ukrainian envoys in Delhi. Multiple teams in Delhi, Ukraine and Russia, worked full-time' sources informed TIE. Half a ton of officials, including several Russian-speaking diplomats, were sent to Indian embassies in Ukraine, Romania, Poland and Hungary to coordinate the evacuation process. Sources added that some 15 students belonging to Pakistan, Bangladesh and Tunisia got rescued from Sumy with the Indian team.