India step up its effort to bring back Indians home from Ukraine

Tags: International Relations

In a Cabinet meeting chaired by the Prime Minister Narendra Modi, the government of India has announced a number of steps to bring back Indians stranded in Ukraine safely to home.

The Government will send its four cabinet ministers  as special envoy to the four neighbouring countries of Ukraine to coordinate the relief measures.

• Civil Aviation minister Jyotiraditya Scindia will travel to Romania and Moldova,

• Minister of Law and Justice Kiren Rijiju to Slovakia, 

• Minister of Petroleum and Natural Gas and Minister of Housing and Urban Affairs Hardeep Singh Puri to Hungary and. 

• Minister of State in the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways and Ministry of Civil Aviation  Gen. V. K. Singh (retd.) to Poland.

The Ministry of External Affairs has been running helplines, and officials are posted at border checkpoints in Poland, Hungary, Slovakia, Romania and Moldova. But the rush at these checkpoints, especially on the Poland-Ukraine border, has led to clashes and evacuees have had to wait for two or three days in freezing temperatures before making a crossing.

The ministers at the ground will help in the paperwork and expedite the process.

The Prime Minister also said that any citizens of neighbouring countries and developing countries who want to leave Ukraine will be helped by India in leaving Ukraine.

The Government of India will send the first consignment of relief materials including medicine on Ukrainian borders on the request of the Ukrainian ambassador to India, Igor Polikha. 

According to the government of India, around 8000 Indians had left Ukraine before the Russian invasion on 24 February 2022. There are still 12,000 Indians in Ukraine. They are mainly medical students who went to Ukraine to study medicine.

The Prime Minister also called and thanked the Prime Minister of Slovakia Mr. Eduard Heger and Mr. Nicolae-Ionel Ciucă, Prime Minister of Romania.