An Indian student has been killed in the ongoing shelling in Ukraine's city Kharkiv, said the Ministry of External Affairs on Twitter. The news was shared by the MEA's official spokesperson Arindam Bagchi who said that the student passed away this morning, on March 1, and that the Ministry is in touch with his family.
The student, identified as aveen Shekharappa Gyanagoudar, was a native of Karnataka and had been pursuing medicine at the Kharkiv National Medical University. Naveen was 20 years old and was in his fourth year at the Medical University. He had left his shelter to get some food and was killed waiting in line at a grocery store, caught in Russian firing, said a report in the Indian Express.
The Ministry has also said that the Foreign Secretary of India is in contact with the ambassadors of Russia and Ukraine to ensure the safe passage of Indian students out of the war-torn country. "Similar action is also being undertaken by our ambassadors in Russia and Ukraine," the MEA said.
At around noon today, the Indian Embassy in Ukraine had sent out an urgent advisory to all citizens and students to evacuate from the capital city of Kyiv as early as possible. "Preferably by trains or through any other means available," said the Embassy on Twitter. In reply to the advisory, a few Indian students had tweeted that they had been waiting at the railway station since yesterday, and the Ukrainian authorities had not allowed them to board the train.
A video also emerged yesterday of Indian students allegedly being harassed and manhandled by Ukrainian security personnel on the Polish border. Poland had said that they would allow Indian students to pass into the country without any visa hassles. However, Indian students stranded at the border said that both the Ukrainian and the Polish Embassies were unclear about the process. They also claimed that Indian students had been facing harassment from Ukrainian authorities after India's decision to abstain from voting at the UN to condemn Russia's invasion of the country upset them.
There were about 20,000 Indian citizens in Ukraine, 18,000 of whom were reportedly students. The ministry says that they have, so far, evacuated 8000 citizens from the country, including 1,369 via Operation Ganga. With several MPs receiving anxious calls from families of Indian nationals stuck in war-hit Ukraine, External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar has asked parliamentarians to directly contact his office to flag "particular concerns" and share information about such people.
The government had on Monday decided to send four ministers to several neighbouring countries of Ukraine to coordinate the evacuation exercise.
