NCP chief Sharad Pawar speaks with EAM Jaishankar on evacuating Indians stuck in Ukraine

Discussions included the possibility of the evacuation of Indian students via Russia, through the town of Belgorod and the matter of aiding students stuck at the Romania-Poland border was also discussed.

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New Delhi: Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) chief Sharad Pawar on Monday talked over the phone with External Affairs Minister (EAM) S Jaishankar and discussed evacuation of Indian students stuck in east Ukraine`s Kharkiv.

Discussions included the possibility of the evacuation of students via Russia, through the town of Belgorod and the matter of aiding students stuck at the Romania-Poland border was also discussed. Kharkiv is one of the majorly affected cities in the ongoing conflict.

Earlier today, Jaishankar said that two more flights under Operation Ganga left from Budapest for Delhi, carrying some 500 Indian students.

This comes at a time when the Centre is evacuating Indian citizens from Ukraine under the evacuation plan titled `Operation Ganga`.

On Sunday, in a high-level meeting chaired on the Ukraine crisis, Prime Minister Narendra Modi accorded top priority to the evacuation of Indian students stranded in Ukraine.

The Polish Embassy in India informed on Sunday that Poland is allowing entry of all the Indian nationals evacuating conflict-ridden Ukraine in its country without visas.

However, a number of students are reported to be facing problems in crossing the border from the Ukrainian side. Amid the ongoing crisis, the Indian Embassy in Kyiv has advised Indian citizens against moving to any of the border checkpoints without prior coordination with government officials at border posts.

In an advisory to Indian nationals on Saturday, the embassy stressed that the situation at various border checkpoints is sensitive and it is working continuously with Embassies in the neighbouring countries for coordinated evacuation of our citizens.