Evacuation on: 4 ministers to visit Ukraine's neighboring countries

Stepping up its efforts to evacuate Indian students stranded in war-hit Ukraine, the Centre decided that Union ministers Hardeep Puri, Jyotiraditya Scindia, Kiren Rijiju and V K Singh will travel to its neighbouring countries to coordinate the evacuation mission and help students.

These ministers will be going there as “special envoys” of India, according to government sources.

The decision was taken at a high-level meeting chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Monday.

Several ministers, including External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar and Commerce Minister Piyush Goyal, also attended the meeting.

Modi had also chaired a meeting on the Ukraine crisis on Sunday and had asserted that ensuring the safety of Indian students and evacuating them is the government’s top priority.

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The sources said that it was also decided at the meeting to further enhance cooperation with the neighbouring countries of Ukraine to expedite the evacuation of Indian students.

India has evacuated around 2,000 of its citizens from Ukraine and 1,000 of them have been brought back home on chartered flights from Hungary and Romania.

Foreign Secretary Harsh Vardhan Shringla said that he called on the envoys of Russia and Ukraine separately and conveyed to them India’s deep concerns about the safety and security of the Indian nationals stuck in Ukraine.

(With inputs from Agencies)