Kyiv : An Indian student has reportedly been shot at in Ukraine capital Kyiv, Union Minister VK Singh told news agency ANI on Thursday, days after another student died in Russian shelling in the city of Kharkiv.
The student was trying to escape Kyiv and was wounded in firing, according to the minister. He was reportedly taken back into the city and is in hospital.
“We heard reports that a student leaving Kyiv was shot. He was taken back into Kyiv and immediately taken to hospital. This is happening in the fighting,” General (Retd) VK Singh told our reporter at Poland’s Rzeszow airport.
On Tuesday, an Indian student was killed in Kharkiv, the second-largest city in Ukraine, when he was standing in a queue outside a grocery store. 21-year-old Naveen Shekharappa of Karnataka had stepped out to stock up on food before taking the train out of the city.
The minister said the Centre is making efforts to ensure that the maximum number of students can come out of Ukraine with as less loss as possible.
The minister said around 1,700 students are still waiting to be evacuated from Ukraine, which was attacked by Russia last Thursday.
General Singh is one of the four ministers sent as special envoys to Ukraine’s neighbouring countries to oversee the evacuation of Indians from war-hit Ukraine.
“The Indian embassy had earlier cleared on the priority that everyone should leave Kyiv. In the event of war, the gun bullet does not look at anyone’s religion and nationality,” General Singh was quoted as saying.
Thousands of students have been trying to escape Ukraine by somehow reaching the borders, where they can cross over to countries from where they are being flown back to India in evacuation flights under “Operation Ganga”.
According to the Ministry of External Affairs, nearly 17,000 Indian nationals have left Ukraine’s borders since advisories were issued over a fortnight back. Over 6,000 have been flown back home, says the ministry.
Before war broke out, around 20,000 Indians, mainly medical students, were in Ukraine.