Russia says buses ready to take out Indians, India says not without ceasefire
Darpan News Desk The Canadian Press, 04 Mar, 2022 10:09 AM
New Delhi, March 4 (IANS) With Russia state media reporting Russian authorities have arranged 130 buses for evacuation of Indian students from war-battered Sumy and Kharkiv in Ukraine, India on Friday said that pulling them out was not possible without a ceasefire as the gunfights and bombing are continuing in these areas.
Russian news agency TASS said that the Russia is ready to send 130 buses to evacuate stranded Indian students and other foreigners from war-torn Ukraine's Kharkiv and Sumy cities to its Belgorod Region, quoting top Russian military official Colonel-General Mikhail Mizintsev.
TASS had also said that this came a day after Prime Minister Narendra Modi spoke to Russian President Vladimir Putin and discussed the safe evacuation of Indians from the war-torn Ukraine.
Over 700 Indian students are stuck in Sumy and they are running out of basic necessities like food and water and they have been urging the Indian government to get them evacuated from there.
Meanwhile, the government sources said that the Indian officials have been deputed in Belgorod to make the necessary arrangements for the Indian nationals including students stuck in Sumy and Kharkiv and once the safe passage is provided or in case of ceasefire, they will be evacuated from these places.
India's prime concern is to evacuate its nationals from the conflict zones of Kharkiv and Sumy in eastern Ukraine, Ministry of External Affairs spokesman Arindam Bagchi said.
The area has been cordoned off and additional forces have reached the spot. Police said the terrorists involved in firing have been trapped and an operation has been started by the police and security forces.
Union ministers Piyush Goyal, Dharmendra Pradhan, Pralhad Joshi, Anurag Thakur, Bhupender Yadav, V. Muraleedharan and Arjun Ram Meghwal held a joint press conference at the Shastri Bhavan here on Thursday and condemned the 'unruly' and 'violent' behaviour of the opposition parties led by the Congress.
Chief Ministers of Congress-ruled states as well as where the party is in power as part of an alliance, including Tamil Nadu's M.K. Stalin (DMK), Maharashtra's Uddhav Thackeray (Shiv Sena) and Jharkhand Chief Minister Hemant Soren (JMM) will also be invited.
Besides, the All India Congress Committee, the Maharashtra and Mumbai verified Congress handles, that of Congress Legislative Party leader and Revenue Minister Balasaheb Thorat, Mumbai Congress President Bhai Jagtap, state party social media head Abhijeet Sapkal, and around 500 other leaders at various level have been blocked on Twitter.
Meanwhile, the wreckage of the state roadways bus that fell into a 500 metre deep gorge following the massive landslide was recovered this morning, rescuers said.
Senior Home Ministry officials on Thursday reviewed the status of the investigations in the two rape cases in Delhi with officials of the Delhi Police. The review was done on the instructions of Union Home Minister Amit Shah, the officials said.
