Indian students stranded in Ukraine following government order to evacuate

Kiev: Indian students are facing difficulties in leaving the troubled country following a government order to return to India as tensions reach their peak over warnings of a potential invasion by Russia.

Speaking to NDTV, certain students said that flights booked had been cancelled while yet others were unable to afford tickets back home, questioning how the government would aid those in need of financial or logistical help.

"The situation is really tense. Some students have already booked their flights but the flights are cancelled," Harsh Goyal, a student in Ukraine, told NDTV. "The Indian government has asked students to leave but prices are really high. Some students here can't afford it. How would the government ensure their safety?"

He said that the Indian embassy in Ukraine was in contact with them and had promised an evacuation route if necessary. Ashish Giri, another student, told the news platform that all plane tickets were sold out until February 20 and that many were expensive or simple unaffordable.

In an advisory on Tuesday, the Indian embassy in capital Kyiv asked Indian nationals to avoid all non-essential travel to and within Ukraine. It also advised Indians to keep in touch with the embassy at all times and to provide details that would allow the embassy to locate or contact them.

"In view of the uncertainties of the current situation in Ukraine, Indian nationals in Ukraine, particularly students whose stay is not essential, may consider leaving temporarily," it said.

The number of Indians living in Ukraine at present is not immediately known. According to an official document in 2020, Ukraine had a relatively small Indian community and about 18,000 Indian students were studying in that country. The data is likely to vary because of the pandemic.

The situation in the border with Russia is still tense with latest satellite images showing a massive build up of military forces, although the Russian Defence Ministry on Tuesday had announced that it had withdrawn certain batches of soldiers. It was unclear where the soldiers were stationed.

Moscow has hinted that it is still open to discussing security guarantees that it laid out before the US and Western countries, including its most prominent demand of withdrawal of NATO forces from the area as well as denial of Ukraine's attempt to become a part of the NATO alliance, a move which Ukraine has also said could be a possibility to avoid war.

US senators joined together Tuesday to express a "message of solidarity" to the Ukrainian people and a warning to Russia's Vladimir Putin, although the chamber failed to agree on drafting sanctions against Moscow. Meanwhile President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine has urged his people to keep their spirits up while ordering the capital Kiev to be decked in national colours as a show of defiance.