‘Be Ready to Leave’: Indian Embassy Tells Students in Ukraine’s Sumy

“Confirmed time and date will be issued soon," the embassy said.

Students of the Sumy State University, located in a town 40 kilometres away from Ukraine’s north-east border.

(Photo: Screenshot)

Indian students stranded at a medical college hostel in Ukraine’s Sumy, were told to "be ready to leave on short notice" by the Indian Embassy late on Sunday night.

The embassy said in a tweet, “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.”

It added, “Confirmed time and date will be issued soon. Indian students advised to be ready to leave on short notice.”

"We are afraid. We have waited a lot and and we cannot wait anymore. We are risking our life; we are moving towards the border. If anything happens to us, all the responsibility will be of the government and Indian Embassy."

This is what students of the Sumy State University, located in a town 40 kilometres away from Ukraine’s north-east border, had said in a video message on Saturday.

Meanwhile, addressing a press conference on Saturday, the spokesperson for Ministry of External Affairs, Arindham Bagchi claimed that the Indian students were 'safe in the campus'.

"Problem is in Sumy. We strongly urge both sides for a ceasefire, hope it happens soon as there is shelling, can risk lives. Indian students are safe in the campus... We have our teams now moving towards the east... Problem is shelling," Bagchi stated.

India has so far brought back over 15,920 Indian nationals in 76 flights under mission "Operation Ganga" which was launched on 26 February.