India has advised its citizens, particularly students, to consider leaving Ukraine in view of Russia’s build-up around the East European nation.
On Tuesday, the Embassy of India in Kyiv issued a travel advisory asking Indians whose stay is not essential to consider leaving Ukraine temporarily in view of the “uncertainties of the current situation”. It also advised Indians to avoid all non-essential travels to and within Ukraine.
Germany, the United States, the United Kingdom and several other nations have already advised their citizens to leave Ukraine.
India had nearly 18,000 of its citizens in Ukraine before the Covid-19 pandemic swept the world - primarily students in several educational institutions. Many students had returned from Ukraine to India when the academic institutions were shut down, and other restrictions were imposed to contain the spread of the SARS-CoV-2. Some students, however, had later returned to Ukraine.
The Embassy of India in Kyiv also asked Indians to keep it informed about the status of their presence in the country so that they could be contacted when required to do so, indicating that it might plan the evacuation of its citizens if the conflict could not be avoided. “The embassy continues to function normally to provide all services to Indian nationals in Ukraine,” it posted on its website as well as on social media platforms.
New Delhi had tacitly endorsed Moscow’s 2014 move leading to the annexation of Crimea, stating that Russia had “legitimate interests” in Ukraine. The Embassy of India in Kyiv had organised the evacuation of nearly 1000 Indian nationals, mostly students, following the escalation of the crisis in the Donetsk and Lugansk regions in Ukraine.
India on January 31 avoided siding with the United States and refrained from supporting its move to hold a meeting of the United Nations Security Council to discuss Russia’s latest military build-up around Ukraine. T S Tirumurti, New Delhi’s envoy to the UN, told the Security Council that India was in favour of finding a solution that could provide for “immediate de-escalation of tensions” over Ukraine, “taking into account the legitimate security interests of all countries and aimed towards securing long term peace and stability in the region and beyond”.
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