New Delhi: In a big setback to the Indian students trapped in Sumy, the ongoing humanitarian corridor Russia had opened and the ceasefire it had agreed to has not worked out forcing the students to go back to their hostels.
Speaking to ETV Bharat, Devi Krishna, a medical student studying at Sumy State University said they were heading towards the buses today but suddenly received information that the ceasefire had failed. "We are now back in the hostel. There are two hostels and I am in hostel no 2. We are around 600-800 students trapped here," he said.
The students who had been putting up with great difficulty in Sumy were, according to sources, informed that the evacuation operation was cancelled "due to bombing on the road which they had to pass through". "They were told that the buses will not depart until further notice. The students were asked to go back to hostels and await new directions," sources added.
What scuttled the ceasefire?
A senior Ukrainian official on Monday rejected the Russian proposal to evacuate civilians from besieged Ukraine to Russia and Belarus. “This is an unacceptable option for opening humanitarian corridors,” Ukrainian Deputy Prime Minister Irina Vereshchuk said at a briefing.
According to the Russian proposal, the only option for civilians fleeing Kyiv and its suburbs would be to go to Gomel in neighboring Belarus. Civilians in Kharkiv and Sumy in eastern Ukraine would have to flee to the Russian city of Belgorod. Belarus is a key ally of Russian President Vladimir Putin and served as a launching ground for the invasion.
The Ukrainian government is proposing eight humanitarian corridors, including from the southern port of Mariupol, that would allow civilians to travel to the western regions of Ukraine, where there is no Russian shelling. “We demand that the Russian Federation stop manipulating and abusing the trust of the leaders of France, China, Turkey and India,” Vereshchuk said.
The development happens just hours after Russia earlier today, announced a ceasefire in Ukraine's capital Kyiv and three other cities - Mariupol, Kharkiv and Sumy - to open a humanitarian corridor for civilian evacuation. Minister Hardeep Singh Puri, who is in Hungary to oversee the evacuation process of stranded Indian nationals, said on Monday that four buses with 50 seat capacity each are on their way to Poltava to bring back Indian students stranded in Ukraine's Sumy.
"Team from Embassy of India is stationed in Poltava City to coordinate the safe passage of Indian students stranded in Sumy to Western borders via Poltava. A confirmed time & date will be issued soon. Indian students advised to be ready to leave on short notice", the Indian embassy in Kyiv tweeted on Sunday night.
Meanwhile, PM Modi spoke to President Putin over a call today and discussed the Ukraine crisis. PM Modi stressed the importance of the safe evacuation of Indian citizens from Sumy at the earliest. President Putin assured Prime Minister Modi of all possible cooperation in their safe evacuation.
