New entry point opens on Slovakia-Ukraine border for Indians' evacuation
Darpan News Desk IANS, 04 Mar, 2022 11:23 AM
New Delhi, March 4 (IANS) The Indian Embassy in Slovakia on Friday said that Indian nationals from western and north-western Ukraine are now coming to the newly-identified border checkpoint at Vysne Nemecke to ramp up the evacuation.
According to the officials in the Indian mission, Vysne Nemecke is a small village on the Slovakia- Ukraine border and opposite Ukraine's Uzhhorod city. From here, the evacuated Indians are transported to the regional capital, Kosice, from where the Indian flights under 'Operation Ganga' are being operated.
The officials in the Indian mission in Slovakia have made arrangements for Indian nationals entering Slovakia from Vysne Nemecke.
Union Minister Kiren Rijiju has personally visited the site to see the arrangement made there for Indian students who have been advised to get to Slovakia's Kosice, instead of going to Budapest in Hungary.
Rijiju also received the first group of Indian nationals, mostly students, on Thursday evening at Vysne Nemecke, before they were transported to Kosice, from where they were flown out to India on an Indian Air Force transport aircraft.
The first SpiceJet flight with evacuated Indian nationals took off from Kosice in Slovakia on March 1.
Government sources said that since the Russian has started military actions in other cities too, the government wants to scale up the evacuation mission to airlift Indians. Similar attempts have been made in other countries too in coordination with local governments, the sources further said.
Meanwhile, another Special Envoy, Union Minister Hardeep Singh Puri, stationed in Budapest, on Friday afternoon said that a group of 1,000 Indian nationals who came into Hungary via Zahony, are being sent to Budapest by train.
"Over 90 youngsters boarded the 12 p.m. train to Budapest while the rest of them will be sent by another at 2 p.m.," Puri tweeted this evening.
He also said that all of them will be sent back to India in five flights scheduled for Friday. Earlier the day, Puri himself visited Zohony to assess the situation at the checkpoint at the Hungary-Ukraine border. He also said that already over 3,000 Indians including students have been sent back to India and a total of seven flights are scheduled for Saturday to take the rest of the Indians assembled in Budapest, who arrived from different places in Ukraine.
While requesting foreign partners to exert pressure on the Russian President to stop the war, Polikha said that air space of Europe was closed for the Russian airplanes. The Russian economy is going down every day. Russia is having absolutely unprecedented casualties. Approximately 5,300 Russian soldiers have lost their lives in the ongoing tussle, he claimed.
India is working out evacuation plans for Indian nationals stranded in Ukraine through Romania, Hungary and Poland. The Foreign Secretary also stated that flight options will available from Dubai and Istanbul and the Indian Embassy continues to be operational in Ukraine.
The Madhya Pradesh government said on Friday that 46 students from the state who registered with the Chief Minister's helpline are safe in Ukraine. However, it is not known exactly how many students from the state are stranded in the war-hit country.
The announcement came shortly after President Vladimir Putin authorised a "special military operation" in the conflict-hit Donbas region in eastern Ukraine. Flights to Kiev, Dnepr, Lvov and Odessa airports "are restricted due to potential hazard for civil aviation
The United Nations refugee agency said on Thursday that the situation was quickly deteriorating after Russia's invasion. It appealed to neighbouring countries to keep their borders open to people seeking a safe haven.
