India says 'no hostage situation of any student' as Indians evacuate Kharkiv amid bombing

Amid Russia's onslaught on Kharkiv, India has refuted that any of its students have been held hostage by authorities on Wednesday. Issuing a statement, the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) stated that many students have left Kharkiv and that have not received any reports of any hostage situation regarding any student. The MEA is in continuous touch with Indian nationals in Ukraine and is co-ordinating with Ukrainian authorities for taking out students from Kharkiv and neighbouring areas to the western part of Ukraine.

MEA: 'No hostage situation'

"Our Embassy in Ukraine is in continuous touch with Indian nationals in Ukraine. We note that with the cooperation of the Ukrainian authorities, many students have left Kharkiv yesterday. We have not received any reports of any hostage situation regarding any student. We have requested support of the Ukrainian authorities in arranging special trains for taking out students from Kharkiv and neighbouring areas to the western part of the country," stated MEA.

The MEA is also co-ordinating with Russia, Romania, Poland, Hungary, Slovakia and Moldova apart from Ukraine for evacuating its nationals from the war-torn nation. Russian Foreign Ministry claimed that 'Indian students are actually taken hostage by the Ukrainian security forces, who use them as a human shield to stop them from entering for Russian territory'. Moscow asserted that Putin had given necessary instructions to ensure the safe removal of Indian citizens from the war zone - giving a 6-hour window to Indians to evacuate Kharkiv.

Countering it, Ukraine's Foreign Ministry urged India, Pakistan, China, and others 'whose students have become hostages of the Russian armed aggression in Kharkiv and Sumy' to contact Moscow. Ukraine urged the countries to demand Moscow to allow the opening of a humanitarian corridor to other Ukrainian cities. Ukraine's 3rd largest city - Kherson has already fallen to Russia and heavy bombing continues in Kharkiv and Kyiv.

Russia invades Ukraine

For weeks, Moscow massed over 150,000 troops on Ukraine's borders in a bid to pressurise Western nations to not allow Ukraine to join NATO, threatening an invasion. Last week, Putin ordered a special military operation in Ukraine's Donbas region, which quickly accelerated into precision airstrikes on Kyiv, Kharkiv, Ivano-Frankivsk, deployed tanks towards Lviv from the Belarus-Ukraine border. A military faceoff is underway between Russian and Ukrainian Armies in Sumy, Poltava, Mariupol, Kharkiv, Kherson including heavy air attacks, missiles from sea, air and land. Over 1 million Ukrainians have fled and many are housed in bomb shelters. Foreign nationals including Indians are being evacuated via Hungary, Poland, Moldova, Slovakia and Romania by Centre.

On Sunday, both nations agreed to hold peace talks at the Ukraine-Belarus border (Gomel) as Ukraine continues to hold Kharkiv and Kyiv. In the first round of talks, Ukraine demanded a ceasefire and immediate withdrawal of Russian troops from its land. With no breakthrough, the two sides agreed on 2nd round of talks on Thursday. Ukraine's application to join the European Union is being processed and the UN General Assembly voted to stop the Russian invasion in Ukraine, with India & 34 others abstaining. As of date, Ukraine has lost 352 civilians including 14 children in the war against Russia.