India looks to evacuate 16,000 nationals stranded in Ukraine

India is focusing on evacuating its 16,000 nationals still stuck in Ukraine, Foreign Minister Harsh Vardhan Shringla said late yesterday, after Russian forces mounted a mass assault by land, air and sea on the former Soviet republic.Teams of Indian foreign ministry officials have been sent to Ukraine’s land borders with Hungary, Poland, Slovakia and Romania to provide assistance to any fleeing Indian nationals, Shringla told a press briefing.India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi is due to speak with Russian President Vladimir Putin, Shringla added.“The prime minister has conveyed...that the topmost priority of the government is the safety and security of Indian nationals, including Indian students, and their evacuation from Ukraine,” he said.Around 4,000 Indians have already been evacuated since the government set up repatriation efforts a month ago, he added.Earlier the Indian embassy in Ukraine said that special flights arranged to head to Kyiv to pick up Indian nationals were cancelled as the country’s airspace was closed.The Indian embassy warned its citizens “travelling to Kyiv, including those travelling from western parts of Kyiv, are advised to return to their respective cities temporarily, especially towards safer places along the western bordering countries.”Meanwhile Telangana Bharatiya Janata Party president Bandi Sanjay Kumar called on Union External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar to ensure the evacuation of as many as 20 Indian students, including a girl from Karimnagar, stranded at Boryspil International Airport near Kyiv.Sanjay Kumar attached a representation made by the family members about Kadari Sumanjali, a student from Karimnagar pursuing her MBBS course at Zaporizhzhia State Medical University, Ukraine, in his letter to the Union minister.The representation said Sumanjali, along with three of her classmates – N Srinidhi, Ramya Sri and Likhita, all from different parts of Telangana, had booked her tickets for Air India flight (AI-1946) to return to India yesterday as per the instructions given by the Ukrainian authorities to leave their country due to present turmoil in their country.“By the time the four students reached the airport, the authorities closed the airport, as a result of which they all got stuck in the airport premises. They are in a position to either move out or stay in the airport,” it said.Earlier Prime Minister Narendra Modi met the finance minister and other officials to discuss the economic impact of the Russia-Ukraine crisis and ways to mitigate the effect of rising crude oil prices, a government source said.