KYIV/ISLAMABAD: Amid the chaos following Russia’s attacks in Ukraine, Pakistan’s embassy in Kyiv rescued students from India who were looking to cross the border into Romania but found themselves stranded in the war-hit Eastern European country after New Delhi’s diplomatic mission apparently fled their offices ostensibly to escape the firing.
In a video making rounds on social media, the staff at Pakistan’s mission appear to provide the students — who had travelled from the eastern city of Kharkiv, Ukraine’s second-largest, to Lviv in the west — with food in a cafeteria-like setting and make necessary arrangements to ensure their safety.
Last Thursday, President Vladimir Putin asked Ukrainian forces to lay down their arms in a televised address before asking his troops to launch a series of attacks in the neighbouring country.
The ensuing violence created an emergency situation for foreign nationals in Ukraine, including Indian families and students, who urged their respective governments to make arrangements for their evacuation.
The city of Lviv, a tourist hub otherwise, is around 70 kilometres from the border with Poland and has since the beginning of the crisis become a refuge for the displaced.
“We looked for the staff at the Indian embassy but could not find anyone there,” a student says in the video.
Indian embassy officials are missing at the Romanian border. Pakistan Embassy helping Indian students to escape war in the Ukraine! pic.twitter.com/MG0cmf9LYV
— Ashok Swain (@ashoswai) March 2, 2022
Commenting on the development, Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi said the mission helped the “distressed” students on humanitarian grounds.
“They were kids, they were in distress [and under] stress so we did what was possible for them on a humanitarian basis,” said Qureshi while speaking to the media in Mirpurkhas district of Sindh where he along with several other party leaders is currently leading a protest march against the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) government.
“Pakistan cares about the kids […] our own or any nationality,” tweeted Muhemmed Aejaz, Pakistan’s ambassador in Hungary.
Excellent efforts by Embassy of Pakistan in Romania pic.twitter.com/96B8i4iUxg
— Muhemmed Aejaz (@AejazMuhemmed) March 2, 2022
Russian forces are firing artillery and laying siege to Kharkiv and other major cities, a Ukrainian official said, as the invasion of the former Soviet republic entered its eighth day.
Indians make up about a quarter of the 76,000 foreign students in Ukraine, by far the largest number, according to Ukrainian government data.
New Delhi has evacuated about 4,000 students in the last month, but some 16,000 remain trapped, according to the latest data from India’s foreign ministry.
The criticism over New Delhi’s evacuation of students from the war-torn country has been mounting. Over the weekend, a student was killed in shelling in Kharkiv, that nation’s foreign ministry said.
Indian media reports said the student, later identified as Naveen Shekharappa, belonged to the southern state of Karnataka’s Haveri district and studied medicine in Ukraine.
The student died while he was trying to find his way out of Kharkiv, his roommate told the NDTV network.
“He lived near the governor’s house and had been standing in the queue for food. Suddenly there was an air strike that blew up the governor’s house and he was killed,” Pooja Praharaj, a student coordinator in Kharkiv, told NDTV.
During the talk, Qureshi also said he had spoken with his counterparts from Poland, Romania and Hungary, all of whom assured Pakistan of their complete support in the safe evacuation of Pakistan nationals from Ukraine.
“By the grace of God, the majority of children have reached safety. The ones that remain, we are working continuously to ensure that they get back home.”
