With Russia announcing millitary operations on Ukraine, and the nation closing its airspace, India is looking at alternative routes to to evacuate its citizens from the conflict region.
India is sending more Russian speaking officials to embassy in Kiev as well as countries neighbouring Ukraine to help in creating alternate evacuation routes for Indians in Ukraine, officials in Ministry of External Affairs told The Hindu on Thursday.
The Ministry held a series of high-level meetings to put into operation certain contingency plans in view of the rapidly changing situation in Ukraine.
The Indian embassy in Ukraine is functional and its advisories should be followed carefully, officials said.
The Indian embassy in Ukraine said alternative arrangements were being made to evacuate Indians since the Ukrainian airspace had been closed.
The helpline numbers of Indian Embassy in Kiev are: +38 0997300483/428, +38 0933980327, +38 0635917881, +38 0935046170
“We are still in Kiev and were woken up by a loud blast 15 minutes back from the Boryspil airport side,” said Baroon Varma, an Indian student in the city, through a message on the social media.
The Embassy of India in Kiev had earlier issued two advisories urging “non-essential” Indian residents and students in various universities and medical colleges of Ukraine to leave. Many students, however, could not leave immediately as international airlines hiked ticket prices. Air India flew its first “special ferry flight” on February 22 to Kiev to airlift Indian citizens from Ukraine. Similar flights are unlikely to take place now. “We won’t be able to leave now,” said Panmana Anandhu of Sunny State University.
Mr. Anandhu, who hails from Kerala, said many Indians were in Kharkiv and Odesa, which have been bombed by Russian forces.
Sources here said that the officials were “closely monitoring” the Ukrainian crisis.
The Ministry of External Affairs has expanded the the control room and made operational on a 24x7 basis.
According to estimates, over 15,000 Indians are currently staying in Ukraine and a sizable number of them are students.
