India advises student to move to western parts of Kyiv “away from active conflict”

|HT|

India on Monday told the students - stuck in Ukraine's capital Kyiv - to move to western parts of the country “away from active conflict” as the city lifted the weekend curfew after witnessing intense fighting on streets and attacks on residential buildings. “Weekend curfew lifted in Kyiv. All students are advised to make their way to the railway station for onward journey to the western parts. Ukraine Railways is putting special trains for evacuations,” Indian Embassy tweeted. The government has been stepping up efforts to bring back thousands stuck in the war-hit country after Russia launched a surprise offensive on Thursday. Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Monday held a high-level meeting on the crisis - second in 24 hours - to discuss steps for the safe return of the citizens. Four ministers are expected to be sent to the neighbouring countries amid the efforts, sources said. Tens of thousands of people have left Ukraine after the Kremlin launched an attack by land, sea and air. Over the weekend, however, Kyiv was able to slow down the offensive and now Belarus is likely to send troops to help its ally Moscow in the fight.

The capital city was under threat with Russia targeting residential buildings and fighting spilling to the streets. But Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskyy pledged to hold the ground.

In India, pressure has been building up from state governments and opposition leaders, including Rahul Gandhi over the return of the students. A video was widely shared on social media that seemed to show some Indians being harassed as they were trying to cross over to Poland.

(Except for the headline and the pictorial description, this story has not been edited by THE DEN staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)