Stranded Indian Students On Their Way Out Of The War Zone In Sumy In Ukraine

The country is heaving a collective sigh of relief at the news that all Indian students may finally be able to come home. Minister Hardeep Singh Puri has said that the 694 Indian students remaining in Sumy last night, have now left for Poltava in buses. Poltava is in central Ukraine. Everybody is hoping that they come through without any incident. Often when humanitarian corridors are announced, troops on the ground occasionally don’t get the message and can open fire. So, until the bus reaches Poltava or near another safe zone, the mission is not complete.

"The evacuation from Sumy has started. There was finally some good news on Tuesday. All Indian students will be evacuated from Sumy on Tuesday itself. They will be taken to a safe location from where they will be brought to India," PTI quoted Anshad Ali, a student coordinator.

The vast majority of around 20,000 or more Indian nationals are out of Ukraine, the largest number remaining were at the university in Sumy. At last, over 17,100 Indian nationals have left Ukraine. While there may be stragglers here and there, the majority of Indian nationals who had registered with the embassy in Kyiv are home.

Sumy and Kharkiv were the worst spots for India. Luckily most students were able to escape the fighting many walked 15-km or more to reach the places marked out by the embassy in consultation with both Russia and Ukraine. In Sumy, there was no time to get out as intense fighting has continued for several days. India has been making efforts to evacuate its citizens from the north-eastern Ukrainian city, but with little success due to the heavy shelling and airstrikes.

Indian diplomats, both at the UN in New York, in Moscow and Kyiv, kept pushing for a temporary ceasefire. India was also in touch with several European countries. Prime Minister Narendra Modi was on the phone with both President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and President Vladimir Putin on Monday asking for a halt to the fighting to bring back the students and other civilians out. At the UNSC too, India’s Permanent Representative T.S Tirumurti raised the issue of the stranded students.  

The first tentative steps at evacuation began on Monday. The fighting was to stop for a few hours to allow civilians to get out of the war zone. But that did not hold. Students asked to get ready for evacuation, saw their hopes shattered when the ceasefire broke down. The news that a fresh temporary ceasefire would be in place on Tuesday to allow for civilians to escape the war had given a sliver of hope for waiting parents. The students hunkering down at the university shelters with electricity and water supply lines destroyed in the fighting were running short of food and water.

On Saturday the students sent out a desperate video clip, announcing that they would begin walking out of Sumy, taking the risk, considering there was no way out. Indian officials quickly got in touch with them and advised them to wait till the government could evacuate them safely. Walking out would have exposed them to shelling and gunfire. The risk was not worth taking.  

This morning the Russian embassy in Delhi announced humanitarian corridors from Sumy to Poltava in Central Ukraine and Belgorod in Russia. The statement said that from these two points civilians could get out by air, rail, and road transport to selected destinations or temporary accommodations. This was worked out between the Russian and Ukrainian authorities.

The students are on their way but at the moment details are not available.