English Article

Challenge Over Evacuation

Indian students hostage in Kharkiv, says Putin.

A large number of Indian students “continue” to remain “hostage” in a train station in Kharkiv, Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Thursday evening. The Russian leader’s comments came hours after India said that its plans to evacuate nationals from the Ukrainian city of Kharkiv were disrupted as fighting in the city had resumed after a brief pause during Wednesday. “They are taking hostage foreign citizens, including thousands of students who went to college in Ukraine. For more than one day at a train station in Kharkiv, 3,179 Indian citizens were held prisoner. They are still there... most of them are still there including 576 people in Sumy. Neo Nazis opened fire at Chinese citizens who wanted to leave Kharkiv, two of them were wounded,” Mr. Putin said during a speech at the Security Council of Russia. He said “hundreds” of foreign citizens were being prevented by the Ukrainian forces from leaving Kharkiv and added, “Basically, they are taking prisoners.” Mr. Putin held a telephone conversation with Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Wednesday evening during which both discussed the situation in Kharkiv.

Fighting rages on

The city, which had a large number of Indian, Chinese and African students, has been the focus of international concern as fighting raged amidst reports that Russia was in an advantageous position. Late on Thursday evening, an official from Kyiv informed that Ukraine and Russia have agreed to create a humanitarian corridor to let the foreign nationals exit. “The second round of talks is over. Unfortunately, Ukraine does not have the results it needs yet. There are decisions only on the organisation of humanitarian corridors,” Ukrainian presidential adviser Mykhailo Podolyak said in a social media post following the talks. Foreign students can be evacuated if this agreement is implemented on the ground.