News Analysis India

Tag: Ukraine war

  • No aid from Indian authorities in Kharkiv, Indian students in trouble as Russia occupies the city

    Express News Service

    HUBBALLI: Indian students, studying at Ukraine’s second largest city Kharkiv, are distressed on Sunday after Russian forces occupied the city. Ironically they are not getting any support from the Indian embassy and they are forcing the Indian government to evacuate them.

    Ten students of Haveri, six from Ballari, four from Dharwad, three from Koppal and two each from Gadag and Uttara Kannada districts are in Ukraine to pursue graduation and postgraduation in medicine. Most of them are studying in V N Karazin Kharkiv National University and Kharkiv National Medical University in Kharkiv city.

    Speaking to TNIE, Shivani Madiwalar, who is studying 4th-year medicine at Kharkiv National Medical University said from Saturday afternoon war has started in Kharkiv city itself and they are hearing only bomb blasting sounds till late night. The same sound has been heard since early Sunday morning too. They have not slept and all are in a state of dread and spending the entire day in an underground metro station.

    “Saturday afternoon Israel bus came and evacuated its students from the war-hit city. Why can’t the Indian government, which has good relations with Russia, do this? When we called the Indian embassy in Ukraine, they cut the phone call when asked about evacuation. From Sunday morning calls are not connecting”, she said.

    Kharkiv is just about 40 km away from the Russian border and located in war-hit eastern Ukraine. Including hundreds of Kannadigas, there are about 16,000 Indian students studying medicine. Soon after the war started, they approached the Indian embassy in Ukraine, but they were not getting any response. The Indian government is only evaculating western Ukraine students where there is no war.

    Haveri student Ganesh M S in Kharkiv said, they have been staying in the metro station from the last two days which is totally packed. There is no food and water supply here, they are eating what they brought from their flats. “We lost all hopes from this government, we are looking forward to the Indian government to evacuate them and bring them back to their native”, he said.

    Parents here are worried a lot about their kids and are approaching district administration requesting to force the government to bring back their children from Ukraine. The district administrations have opened helplife for local parents, whose children are studying in Ukraine, and collecting information.

    While countries like Poland and Hungary have welcomed fleeing Ukrainians, some foreign citizens seeking to leave Ukraine have reported difficulties at the Polish border.

    An Indian volunteer in Poland said Sunday some Indian citizens seeking to flee Ukraine into Poland are stuck at the border leading into Medyka, Poland, and unable to cross.

    The Indian Embassy in Kyiv said Sunday that Indian citizens are being evacuated from Ukraine to Romania and Hungary.

    But some have arrived at the border with Poland apparently unaware of this and are stuck.

    Ruchir Kataria, the volunteer, told The Associated Press that the Indians seeking to cross at Medyka were told in broken English: “Go to Romania.”

    But they had already made long journeys on foot to the border, and have no way to reach the border with Romania hundreds of kilometers away.

    Some other Indian citizens who managed to cross into Poland have been denied a place to stay in shelters set up by Polish authorities and charities, and were told that the help was reserved for Ukrainians, according to Kataria’s wife, Magdalena Barcik, who is working with him to help those fleeing.

    (With AP Inputs)

  • India, UAE, China give EOVs, Russia clears its stand on Ukraine in UNSC

    Express News Service

    NEW DELHI: History will judge us for our actions -or lack thereof.

    Shortly after US Representative to the UN Linda Thomas-Greenfield uttered these words Russia vetoed a United Nation’s Security Council (UNSC) resolution, earlier on Saturday, which deplored their military action in Ukraine. The motion co-written by US and Albania was supported by 11 of the 15 members, whilst India, China and UAE abstained.

    Ambassador Greenfield further said, “vote no, or abstain, if you do not upload the Charter and align yourselves with the aggressive and unprovoked actions of Russia. Just as Russia had a choice, so do you.”

    India abstained from voting even though it is viewed as a friend of the US (as a member of Quad and strong mention in the Indo Pacific Strategy document). India has had a long-standing association with Russia too and is dependent on it for military equipment.

    “Dialogue is the only answer to settling differences and disputes, however, daunting that may appear at this moment. It is a matter of regret that the path of diplomacy was given up, we must return to it. For these reasons, India has chosen to abstain on this resolution,” according India’s Permanent Representative to the UN, TS Tirumurthi, in India’s Explanation of Vote (EOV).

    ALSO READ | China is Russia’s best hope to blunt sanctions, but wary

    India has been in touch with all sides urging parties concerned to return to the negotiating table.

    The UAE in their EOV said, “The serious developments in Ukraine undermine regional and international peace and security. Throughout the crisis, my country has consistently called for de-escalation and dialogue, we have placed great hope in the various diplomatic intitiatives and channels aimed at resolving the crisis. The result of this vote today was a forgone conclusion, but the avenues for dialogue must remain open more urgently than ever before, and we must pursue them together.”

    Interestingly, UAE’s Minister of Foreign Affairs Sheikh Abdullah bin Zayed and US Secretary of state Anthony Blinken had a telephonic conversation, a day before the vote, discussing Ukraine. A day prior to that Sheikh Abdullah also emphasised on his countries ties with Russia on phone with this Russian counterpart Sergey Lavrov.

    As China-Russia relations are strong at present, China’s abstaining was a given. “I would like to stress that the issue of Ukraine is not something that only emerged today, nor did the current situation occur suddenly overnight. It is the result of interplay of various factors over a long period of time. China advocates the vision of common, comprehensive, cooperative and sustainable security. We call on all parties to immediately come back to the track of diplomatic negotiations and political settlement,” said Ambassador Zhang Jun in his EOV.

    However, despite this stance, experts feel this may get altered if sanctions begin to impact them.

    ALSO READ | I need ammunition, not a ride: Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy declines US offer to evacuate Kyiv

    “China-Russia relations are at the highest level in history, but the two countries are not an alliance,” said Li Xin, an international relations expert at the Shanghai University of Political Science and Law.

    Meanwhile, Russia’s Permanent Representative, Vassily Nebenzia, alleged that the draft of the resolution was not balanced as it was not just against Russia but also against Ukraine.

    “In particular they left behind the story how the Maidan Junta that rose to power after the unconstitutional coup d’etat in Kiev in 2014 waged war on people of Eastern Ukraine, airdropping bombs on Donetsk and Lugansk. How can we not mention ghastly crimes committed by Ukrainian Nazis in the course of past eight years or protestors against Maidan who were burnt alive in Odessa?” said Ambassador Nebenzia.

    Russia has alleged that there is a lot of fake news being circulated with misleading images and footage. They have denied attacking any kindergarten, targeting civilians and have refuted the rumour that radiation at Chernobyl is endangering humans.

    “Radiation levels at the Chernobyl NPP are low, there is no threat to population,” says Director General of International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) Rafael Grossi.

    Time will tell, whether the Russian military invasion of Ukraine was a failure of diplomatic efforts or an outcome of rhetoric. The sanctions imposed on Russia will have a cascading effect on many countries. One can only hope that this war comes to an end.

  • Ukraine crisis: IAF decides not to send aircraft to multilateral air exercise in UK

    By PTI

    NEW DELHI: The Indian Air Force has decided not to deploy its aircraft in a multilateral air exercise in the UK next month in view of the situation arising out of the crisis in Ukraine.

    The exercise ‘Cobra Warrior’ is scheduled to take place from March 6-27 at Waddington in the United Kingdom.

    “In light of the recent events, #IAF has decided not to deploy its aircraft for Exercise Cobra Warrior 2022 in UK,” the IAF tweeted.

    The announcement came days after the IAF said it will send five combat aircraft to the exercise.

    Though the IAF did not clearly mention the reasons for the pull-out, it is learnt that the crisis in Ukraine following the Russian military attack prompted the decision.

  • Don’t move to border posts without coordination with us: Indian embassy in Ukraine

    By PTI

    NEW DELHI: India on Saturday advised its stranded nationals in Ukraine to exercise caution at all times and not move to any border posts to exit the country without prior coordination with its officials.

    The Indian embassy in Ukraine issued a fresh advisory in view of increasing Russian attacks on several Ukrainian cities and reports of heavy fighting around the capital Kyiv.

    The embassy particularly advised those staying in the eastern part of Ukraine to continue to remain in their current places of residence and stay indoors or in shelters as much as possible.

    “All Indian Citizens in Ukraine are advised to not move to any of the border posts without prior coordination with the government of India officials at the border posts (helpline numbers established) and the emergency numbers of the embassy of India in Kyiv,” the embassy said.

    It said the situation at various border checkpoints is sensitive and the embassy is working continuously with the Indian missions in the neighbouring countries for coordinated evacuation of the citizens.

    “Embassy is finding it increasingly difficult to help the crossing of those Indian nationals who reach border checkpoint without prior intimation,” it said in the advisory.

    Notwithstanding the difficult ground situation, India on Friday managed to set up camp offices in Lviv and Chernivtsi towns in western Ukraine to facilitate the transit of Indians to Hungary, Romania and Poland.

    India also positioned teams of officials at Zahony border post in Hungary, Krakowiec as well as Shehyni-Medyka land border points in Poland, Vysne Nemecke in the Slovak Republic and Suceava transit point in Romania to coordinate the exit of Indian nationals from Ukraine.

  • Air India plane departs from Mumbai for Bucharest to evacuate Indians stranded in Ukraine

    By PTI

    NEW DELHI: An Air India plane departed from the Mumbai airport on Saturday morning for Romanian capital Bucharest to evacuate Indians stranded in Ukraine due to the Russian military offensive.

    The flight, AI1943, took off from the Mumbai airport around 3.40 AM and is expected to land at the Bucharest airport around 10 AM (Indian Standard Time), senior government officials said.

    Indian nationals who have reached the Ukraine-Romania border by road are being taken to Bucharest by Indian government officials so that they can be evacuated in the Air India flight, they noted.

    Air India will operate more flights on Saturday to Bucharest and Hungarian capital Budapest to evacuate Indians stranded in Ukraine.

    The Ukrainian airspace has been closed for civil aircraft operations since the morning of February 24 and therefore, the evacuation flights are operating out of Bucharest and Budapest.

    Around 20,000 Indians, mainly students, are currently stranded in Ukraine, the officials said.

    Before the closure of the Ukrainian airspace, Air India had conducted one flight to Ukrainian capital Kyiv on February 22 that brought 240 people back to India.

    It had planned to operate two more flights on February 24 and February 26 but it could not do so as the Russian offensive began on February 24 and the Ukrainian airspace was consequently shut down.

    Air India said on Twitter on Friday night that it will be operating flights on B787 aircraft from Delhi and Mumbai to Bucharest and Budapest on Saturday as special government charter flights to fly back stranded Indian citizens.

    The Indian embassy in Ukraine on Friday said it is working to establish evacuation routes from Romania and Hungary.

    “At present, teams are getting in place at the following check points: Chop-Zahony Hungarian border near Uzhhorod, Porubne-Siret Romanian border near Chernivtsi,” it said.

    Indian nationals, especially students, living closest to these border checkpoints are advised to depart in an organised manner in coordination with teams from the Ministry of External Affairs to actualise this option, the embassy said.

    Once the above-mentioned routes are operational, the Indian nationals travelling on their own would be advised to proceed to the border checkpoints, it noted.

    The embassy advised Indian travellers to carry their passports, cash (preferably in US dollars), other essential items and COVID-19 vaccination certificates to the border checkpoints.

    “Print out Indian flag and paste prominently on vehicles and buses while travelling,” it said.

    The distance between Kyiv and the Romanian border checkpoint is approximately 600 kilometres and it takes anywhere between eight-and-a-half hours to 11 hours to cover it by road.

    Bucharest is located approximately 500 kilometres from the Romanian border checkpoint and it takes anywhere between seven to nine hours to cover the distance by road.

    The distance between Kyiv and the Hungarian border checkpoint is around 820 kilometres and it takes 12-13 hours to cover it by road.

  • Waking up to explosions: Indian students in Ukraine narrate situation amid Russian attack

    Express News Service

    NEW DELHI:  Some of the Indian students stranded in Ukraine are a little too close to the war. Many of them are in Kharkiv and Odessa. Both places have witnessed airstrikes. Authorities have asked them to move to bunkers.

    Inside the overcrowded bunkers – some real and some makeshift like tube stations and basements – they are waking up to explosions. Some have seen fighter jets roaring through the sky. Some even say that rockets landed in places nor far from where they are.

    Aousaf Hussain, a 26-year-old MBBS student in Kharkiv in north-east Ukraine, said that the army is all over the city. Having heard explosions since the morning, he and his friends decided to stay spend the night at Naukova metro station, with local residents. He is from Kerala.

    “I first went to a bunker made during Second World War era. But it dimly lit and overcrowded. There was a mother with her young baby in a pram. I don’t know how they are managing. I then moved to the metro station,” Hussain told The New Indian Express.

    Aousaf said that he started making videos of the military conducting marches on the streets, but when they spotted him they yelled and asked him to delete it. He added that no one from the Indian embassy has come to their rescue so far. They are completely on their own. “Around 150-200 students are there in the metro station,” he said.

    Students in Odessa, in the southern part of the country, also reported shelling and bombing. Some even captured these scenes on camera. “About 5-10 kms from our place, massive shelling took place and the sky turned black,” said Kuldeep Singh, a 24-year-old student of National Medical University. He is from Uttar Pradesh.

    Vishal Yadav, a third-year student in Odessa from Varanasi, does not know what future has in store. “The situation is tense. An emergency has been declared. News channels are saying that the Russian army wants the Ukraine army to surrender. We are also hearing people are being killed. It’s scary,” he said.

    West Bengal’s Anindya Sekhar Bhadra, a third-year MBBS student in Vinnytsia, woke up to a loud explosion near her hostel. Vinnytsia is in west-central Ukraine. “There is a military base where the explosion took place. A cloud of fear has covered the sky of Vinnytsia. Locals are leaving for safer places,” said Bhadra.

    People in Kharkiv have been asked to take shelter. “Authorities asked us to stay in bunkers, which in our case is the basement of our hostel, Airstrikes by Russia have started. I came here 15 days ago to complete my admission process. The situation is tense but we are safe so far,” said Pratik Jondhale of Nasik.

    Zafar Ali, from Kashmir’s Baramulla, was not very far from a place where a rocket landed. He is stuck in Odessa. “Panic gripped all of us after a rocket landed about a kilometre from our university. Fear is growing with each passing moment,” Zafar said. He is among the 20 students from J&K in Odessa.

    Inputs from Pranab Mondal (Kolkata), Sudhir Suryawanshi (Mumbai) and Fayaz Wani (Srinagar)

  • Dollar exchange stopped; no way to return: Indian students in Ukraine narrate their ordeal 

    By PTI

    NEW DELHI:  Indian students woke up to air raid sirens and a suddenly well-lit sky and soon all hell broke loose on the streets of Kyiv, the capital of war-hit Ukraine, as some of them narrated their ordeal on Thursday with frantic people rushing to petrol stations, banks and departmental stores in chock-a-block traffic.

    “Tough times don’t last but tough people do,” Ashna Pandita, a third-year medical student, told PTI from her hostel in Kyiv over phone.

    Students are not able to exchange their currency as Ukrainian stores have stopped trading dollars.

    The Indian mission in Kyiv was planning to relocate Indian nationals to the western border and has advised them to keep their passport and necessary documents with them all the time.

    “We woke up at 4 AM with a bang as we saw skies lit up followed by air sirens,” said Pandita who studies at Taras Shevchenko National Medical University along with her twin brother Ansh.

    Besides Taras Shevchenko, two other universities — Bogomolets and UAFM — house a maximum number of Indian students in various streams.

    There was panic in the morning air as “we saw military students studying with us packing their bags to join the forces and there was a clear instruction that no one will be making any video recordings of movement of troops,” Pandita said.

    Bunkers in the hostel were opened and all students were directed to move there in case air sirens were sounded.

    The same drill has been started in all Metro stations.

    ALSO READ | Stalin seeks urgent steps from Centre to bring back over 5,000 Tamils in Ukraine

    Aikin Ash Muthoo, also a third-year student from the same college hailing from Jamshedpur, says initially he thought that an electric transformer had blown up but the confirmation of Russia carrying out an attack came from India.

    “My parents called up and informed me that there was an attack, news enough to pull me out of the bed to understand the situation as we were preparing to leave for home and were awaiting our turn on Air India flights,” Muthoo said.

    He said immediately the hostel staff started furnishing bunkers in the hostel so that people could be accommodated there in case of air raids by Russia.

    The hostel has around 40 Indians and the exact number of students was not available. “We immediately rushed to the departmental store and carried back ration for two weeks and some water to survive for another week or so,” he said, adding the exchange of dollars had been stopped.

    All the students were keeping an eye on the advisories issued by the Indian mission in Ukraine with the latest being that all flights for evacuation had been closed and alternative arrangements were being finalised so that “Indian nationals can be relocated to the western part of the country”.

    A fifth-year student at the same hostel, Shahshank Matta, who hails from Bengaluru and manages the Indian students, said, “We are not sure about what is happening other than that we will be getting evacuated to the western part of the country.

    ” Akash Kaul, studying in the fifth year at Bogomolets Medical University, said that panic was high on the streets of Kyiv from early hours of the morning.

    “It took me nearly three hours to cover a distance which normally takes 15 minutes by cab,” he said.

    “I was awakened to the news by my father and immediately I rushed to my apartment to keep my passport and other documents ready,” Kaul who was at his friend’s place said.

    He said while travelling he saw several Ukrainian nationals carrying bags and suitcases were moving out of Kyiv to safer places, “probably to the western part of the country and seeking refuge in neighbouring Poland”.

    Kaul had to change his schedule after Air India announced that its evacuation flight had been cancelled due to the closure of air space over Ukraine.

    Accompanied by Sampath Ganesh, hailing from Tamil Nadu, Nitin Roy, hailing from Kerala but at present settled in Rajasthan, and Pranjal Singh from Jaunpur, Kaul, who is staying in a rented apartment in Vidrandnyi Ave in Kyiv, is keeping a close watch on the advisory issued by the Indian mission.

    “I hope that something will be worked out soon,” he added.

    Back in India, the father of Ashna and Ansh, Anil Pandita is anxious and constantly in touch with the children.

    “They have limited stores and I hope things ease up soon.”

    He said that airlines escalated the ticket prices to an extent that it became virtually impossible for a middle-class family to afford it. “I had booked them for March 6 but now I don’t know whether they can make it,” Anil Pandita said in a choked voice.

    Muthoo’s father Aklesh said in a statement to PTI that they were worried as the children are short on cash as ATMs are not working and soon their supplies will come to an end.

    The parents made an appeal to the government to evacuate the Indian students from Ukraine at the earliest.