“Home beckons”! For the first batch of 500 Indian students, who were evacuated to Ukraine’s capital Kiev, leaving all that seething turmoil must be quite a relief. They will be flown to India shortly.
The spike in tensions in the eastern part of Ukraine had forced India’s external affairs ministry to issue an advisory asking around 1,000 Indian students to leave the strife-torn Central Asian country.
Lugansk is home to Lugansk State Medical University, University of Lugansk, and Volodymyr Dahl East Ukrainian National University where Indian students study in large numbers. Around 500 students have already been evacuated to the capital Kiev on June 3, from where they will be flown back home.
The May 30 advisory had asked Indian citizens to avoid non-essential travel to Ukraine and advised Indian students to leave Donetsk and Lugansk as soon as possible. However, sensing a dramatic rise in conflict in Lugansk between the government authorities and the separatists, India decided to pull out all the students from the city on June 3 itself.
“Home beckons! Students arrive safely in Kyiv from Lugansk region of Ukraine enroute to their homes in India,” said Syed Akbaruddin, the spokesperson of India’s external affairs ministry, in a tweet June 4.
Ukraine boasts of a sizeable Indian diaspora, which consists of almost 2500 students, studying medicine and engineering, and a small business community as well. The Indian student community in Ukraine reflect the regional diversity of India, with 350 from Kerala, 300 from Tamil Nadu, 150 from Andhra Pradesh, 60 from Punjab, 25 each from Jammu and Kashmir and Maharashtra, 20 from Uttar Pradesh and 10 from Gujarat. Other Indian states account for 200 Indian students studying in Ukrainian universities.
Ukraine plunged into a state of crisis after its President, Victor Yanukovych, was ousted in February in the wake of a raging battle between pro-Russia separatists in Crimea and the pro-west government in the country. Crimea has already ceded to Russia through a referendum, and tensions are escalating in the eastern regions of Ukraine where the pro-Russian rebels are waging a campaign for independence.
India has welcomed the successful conduct of the recent presidential elections in Ukraine and congratulated President-elect Petro Poroshenko on his victory in the election.
Given its stakes in the stability of the Eurasian region, India has hoped for “an inclusive dialogue among various sections of Ukraine’s population for a peaceful resolution of the crisis, restoring peace and stability in Ukraine and in the region.”
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