All 694 Indian students stuck in Ukraine's Sumy moved out. Union minister Hardeep Singh Puri told reporters that all 694 Indian students, who were stranded in Sumy, have left for Poltava in buses. "Last night, I checked with the control room, 694 Indian students were remaining in Sumy. Today, they have all left in buses for Poltava," Puri told reporters.
A medical student at the Sumy university, who did not wish to be identified, confirmed that buses have arrived and students have started boarding the buses. "We have been told that we will go to Poltava. I am praying that we reach a safe zone and this misery is over," he was quoted as saying
The foreign ministry tweeted that from Poltova, they will board trains to western Ukraine. The students were shifted as part of evacuation of civilians from Sumy and the town of Irpin near the Ukrainian capital Kyiv through a green corridor to Poltova, a city in central Ukraine. The foreign ministry of Ukraine tweeted a video of the evacuation of Sumy citizens, saying "We call on Russia to agree on other humanitarian corridors in Ukraine".
We have already started the evacuation of civilians from Sumy to Poltava, including foreign students. Sumy, located near the Russian border and around 350 km east of Ukrainian capital Kyiv, has seen heavy fighting since the invasion. Today, at least nine people, including two children, died in an air strike in the city.
The students have been waiting for evacuation for days. On Saturday, unable to cope any longer with the bitter cold, depleting food and water supplies, the students shared videos saying they have decided to begin the risky journey to the Russian border 50 km away.
But they were dissuaded by the government, which contacted them and asked that they "avoid unnecessary risks". A plan to evacuate them on Monday fell through as Ukraine rejected a Russian plan for a humanitarian corridor to Russia and Belarus.
Soon after, Prime Minister Narendra Modi held discussions with Russian President Vladimir Putin and Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelensky on ways to begin the stalled evacuation process of the Indian students from Sumy.
First evacuation bid aborted
Tears of joy turned into despair in a matter of minutes for 700 Indian students in Sumy as many of them had to go back to their shelters from the buses deployed to carry them out of Ukraine during a shortlived ceasefire on Monday. “The girls were asked to board first. Then they were told to get down. Our local coordinators told us firing had started again in the routes through which students would be evacuated,” Assam student Arif Mahfuz Siddiqui said.
Indian authorities told them on Sunday night that transport would be available for their evacuation and they should leave ‘quietly’. Russia declared a ceasefire the next morning to open humanitarian corridors for people left stranded in war zones.
The students packed their bags and waited almost three hours in the designated open area of the Sumy State University campus, but only four buses came to take them to Poltava, around 165km away in central Ukraine, from where an embassy team would coordinate their evacuation. “They said only girls can board. After 150-odd girls got in, even they were asked to get down, saying the ceasefire would end soon,” said Viraj Walde from Nagpur.
