No immediate plan to evacuate Indians from Ukraine, monitoring situation closely: MEA

Bhopal: Despite growing concerns over the high possibility of a Russian invasion of Ukraine, the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) on Thursday said that there's “no immediate plan” to evacuate the Indian nationals from the eastern European country.

Addressing a press briefing, MEA spokesperson Arindam Bagchi said that India is constantly monitoring the situation on the ground. "It is a live issue and a control room has been set up. We continue to monitor the situation on the ground," he said.

The MEA spokesperson added that the “focus is and will remain on Indian nationals in Ukraine” rather than anything larger. "No immediate evacuation plans. Air bubble restriction has been lifted. Chartered flights are also being encouraged to fly," Bagchi added.

No immediate evacuation plans, so don't have any special flights.However,there were limited number of flights under air bubble arrangements,restrictions on number of flights & passengers removed. Indian carriers being encouraged to operate Chartered flights b/w India-Ukraine: MEA pic.twitter.com/dgnDJ1qf7b — ANI (@ANI) February 17, 2022

The Indian embassy in Ukraine had on Wednesday issued a fresh advisory, saying that it continues to function normally to provide all services to its nationals in the country amid an escalation of crisis between Ukraine and Russia.

Meanwhile, Union Minister Jyotiraditya Scindia also assured to look into the issue of facilitating the safe return of Indian students from Ukraine amid the threat of Russian invasion there.

He gave the assurance while responding to a tweet by Vivek Tankha, Congress's Rajya Sabha member from Madhya Pradesh. In his Twitter post, Tankha appealed to Scindia, Civil Aviation Minister, and S Jaishankar, Foreign Minister, to facilitate safe return of Indian students from Ukraine.

"Appeal to @DrSJaishankar @JM_Scindia to facilitate earliest return of Indian students from Ukraine. Ukraine tickets very expensive. Subsidise or allow 1-time free travel. As an MP and Lawyer, I and many others can help GOI for short fall in special cases. Help #Indian#students#Ukraine," Tankha said in the tweet, in which he tagged Scindia and Jaishankar.

"Sure, will look into it," Scindia said in his brief reply.

Tankha's plea to the two ministers came hours after the US and NATO leaders said that there is no meaningful pullback of Russian forces from the Ukrainian border despite Moscow's show and claim of drawdown. There are said to be more than 20,000 Indian students in Ukraine, most of them studying medicine.

Notably, India had on Tuesday advised its citizens in Ukraine to temporarily leave that country amid escalating tension between Russia and NATO countries over the eastern European nation. In an advisory, the Indian embassy in Kyiv asked Indian nationals to avoid all non-essential travel to and within Ukraine.