NEWS

Union minister Jyotiraditya Scindia, who is in Romania as Prime Minister Narendra Modi's envoy to secure a safe passage to Indians from war-hit Ukraine, on Wednesday said that 1300 students were sent from Bucharest via six flights.

India has been evacuating its citizens via special flights from Ukraine's western neighbours such as Romania, Hungary and Poland as the Ukrainian airspace has been shut down since February 24.

To oversee the task, the prime minister has sent Union ministers to these countries. Petroleum minister Hardeep Singh Puri has been sent to Hungary, transport minister VK Singh is in Poland and aviation minister Scindia has been given the charge of evacuating students from Romania and Moldova. Law minister Slovakia is in Slovakia.

The evacuation of Indians through the Poland border, which the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) had acknowledged as a “problem area”, has made some headway with close to 2,000 people, mainly students, crossing over by noon on Tuesday.

Adam Burakowski, Ambassador of Poland to India, told The Indian Express that roughly 1,700 Indians had safely made it to Poland till 7am (Polish time). “We have received almost four-lakh people already. Poland is ready to receive anybody and any number of people trying to escape Russian aggression. We don’t look at nationality,” he added.

China on Tuesday issued an advisory asking its citizens leaving under-attack Ukraine to behave themselves, remain quiet and show respect to local women and children as they finally begin to make their way out of the country through their nearest border points in batches.

The advisory comes as the first batch of Chinese nationals were evacuated on Monday with thousands still stranded in the country, five days after the Russian invasion of the east European country began.

The Chinese embassy advice for its nationals to remain quiet, courteous and travel in a group was given in the backdrop of possible resentment against them among locals who are aware of Beijing’s support for the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

The Congress distanced itself from leader Shashi Tharoor’s criticism of the government over abstaining on a US-sponsored resolution that deplored in the strongest terms Russia’s action against Ukraine. Senior party leader’s colleague Anand Sharma said that the former’s views were personal and remarked that strong words must not be used.

Shashi Tharoor's party colleague Anand Sharma said that the former's views were personal and remarked that strong words must not be used. Shashi Tharoor's party colleague Anand Sharma said that the former's views were personal and remarked that strong words must not be used.

This came after Tharoor, using sharp words to criticise the government, said: “After our abstention, many regretted that India had placed itself on the ‘wrong side of history’.”