The Ministry of External Affairs on Thursday said that the total number of Indians waiting to cross Ukraine's Western borders have reduced.
Speaking at the special briefing on Operation Ganga, to bring back Indian citizens from Ukraine amid Russia's military operation, MEA Spokesperson Arindam Bagchi said, "A large number of students have left Kharkiv after we issued an advisory yesterday. The total number of Indians waiting to cross Ukraine's Western borders have reduced."
He further said that after the urgent advisory issued 1000 Indian nationals have reached Pesochin.
MEA Spokesperson said that Foreign Secretary Harsh Vardhan Shringla spoke to the Deputy Foreign Minister of Ukraine on the modalities of evacuation.
"Crowd on the Western borders continues to fluctuate. We discussed the movement at the border with Poland yesterday. The movement was smooth but early morning it was clogged so some students took more time. As I just came in I was given a report that the situation has improved there," he added.
Highlighting the situation, he informed that the movement has been steady and progressive across the Hungarian, Slovak and Romanian borders adding that the Embassy in Lviv is coordinating the evacuation process and student coordinators are also helping.
"Some in Kharkiv have also left from the train. There has been a fresh outbreak of violence in Kharkiv today which makes our job much more difficult. This is a dynamic situation. In touch with Ukrainian and Russian authorities to look at the modalities on how we can evacuate from Kharkiv and Sumy," said Bagchi.
Giving details of the Indian nationals stuck in Kharkiv, Bagchi said, "Registration of 20,000 Indian nationals was done initially, but there were many who did not get themselves registered. We estimate a few hundred citizens still remain in Kharkiv. Our priority is to take students out safely in whatever mode of transport possible."
Bagchi said that Prime Minister Narendra Modi also had a telephonic conversation with Russian President Vladimir Putin yesterday and spoke on the safe evacuation of the Indian nationals from conflict areas in Ukraine.
External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar also held a telephonic conversation with European Union on high Representative of Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Joseph Borrell, French Foreign Minister and Foreign Minister of Estonia, he added.
( With inputs from ANI )
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