India plans next leg of evacuation from Ukraine via Russian cities

The next round of evacuation of Indians stranded in war-torn Ukraine is being planned through the Russian cities of Belgorod and Kursk.

This was announced by external affairs minister S Jaishankar at a session on 'Situation in Ukraine' in the Rajya Sabha on Tuesday.

"A team from our embassy in Moscow had also been sent to the Russia-Ukraine border to facilitate the possible evacuation of Indian students through Belgorod and Kursk," he said in the Upper House.

Russia had earlier laid out an evacuation plan that involved bringing Ukraine-based Indians on buses to Belgorod region from where they would take flights back to India.

On Tuesday, three Indians stranded in the southern Ukrainian city of Kherson - now said to be under Russian control - were evacuated with the help of the Russian army. This was the first instance of Indians leaving via Ukraine's eastern border and through Russia.

The three boarded a bus to Simferopol and then came to Moscow by train with the assistance of the Indian embassy in Moscow, after which they took a flight back home.

One was a student from Chennai while other two were businesspersons who were headed to Ahmedabad.

A top official from Russia's defence ministry has claimed that Russian troops have taken control of the entire region of Kherson, after the territory's capital city of the same name was captured on March 3.

Indian authorities have so far helped about 22,500 Indians return home from war-ravaged Ukraine after the country was attacked by Russia. Indian students in Sumy were able to leave because both Ukraine and Russia held to their commitment of a ceasefire. But they all left from the western borders via Poland, Hungary, Romania and the Slovak Republic.

Speaking in the House, Jaishankar said that Indians in distress situations abroad can count on their government. "We have shown this on numerous occasions before, but rarely in one as challenging as the ongoing conflict in Ukraine," he said.