Modi, Putin discuss plight of Indian students in Ukraine

Russian President Vladimir Putin held talks with India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi on the urgent evacuation of Indian students trapped in the Ukrainian city of Kharkiv, said the Kremlin in an AFP report.

During their video call, Putin said he had ordered Russian soldiers “to ensure the safe exit of Indian nationals from the armed conflict zone and their return to their homeland”, according to a Kremlin statement.

Russia was trying to organise the emergency evacuation of a group of Indian students from Kharkiv via a humanitarian corridor, it added.

On Wednesday, the Ukrainian authorities said Russian paratroopers had landed in the eastern city, and that there was fighting in the streets.

Russia’s Defense Ministry has said that the Ukrainian authorities were holding a group of Indian students by force.

“They have practically been taken hostage,” ministry spokesman Igor Konashenkov said.

Ukraine, he said, was offering to evacuate them via the western border with Poland, which would mean they would be passing through combat zones, he said.

“The Russian armed forces are ready to take all necessary measures for the safe evacuation of Indian nationals” so they could be flown home from Russia, he added.

New Delhi announced on Tuesday that an Indian student had been killed during shelling of the eastern Ukrainian city of Kharkiv.

Russian artillery bombardment of the city killed 21 people there on Tuesday, said the region’s governor.

India is trying to arrange the safe evacuation of some 12,000 of its citizens.

Before Russia launched its invasion of Ukraine last Thursday, there were 20,000 Indians in Ukraine.

Since then however, around 8,000 have managed to leave the country, and around 1,400 of them have already been repatriated, say the Indian authorities.