Thousands of Indians have been evacuated from Ukraine in Operation Ganga (File)
At least 15-20 Indians are in conflict-hit Ukraine and they are waiting to be evacuated, the government said today. It assured that evacuation flights under Operation Ganga "are not over".
"We are providing all possible assistance to these people. Some people are still in Kherson. Operation Ganga is not over and we are helping all those who wish to be evacuated," Foreign Ministry spokesperson Arindam Bagchi said in a media briefing. Kherson is in southern Ukraine.
When tensions in Ukraine increased, the Indian embassy there started a registration drive for Indians in January, and some 20,000 Indians - mostly students - had registered.
Foreign Minister S Jaishankar said more than half of the students were in universities in eastern Ukraine that borders Russia. This area has been the epicentre of the conflict so far.
He said despite the government efforts, a large majority of students decided to stay put in Ukraine. "Despite our efforts, however, a large majority of students continued staying in Ukraine. We must understand their predicament in this regard. There was a natural reluctance to leave educational institutions, which would affect their studies. Some universities actively discouraged and showed reluctance to offer online courses," the minister said in a statement to parliament yesterday on the situation in Ukraine.
The government has so far evacuated thousands of Indians from Ukraine's cities - Kyiv, Kharkiv and others. Russia and Ukraine had given a humanitarian corridor for their exit following India's intense diplomatic engagement with the two sides.
Ukraine's leader today said Russia was building a new Cold War wall across Europe "between freedom and bondage", after his government accused invading forces of bombing a theatre sheltering many civilians and marked with the word "children".
The capital Kyiv emerged from a 35-hour curfew to new destruction, as Russian troops try to encircle the Ukrainian capital as part of their slow-moving offensive.