Scindia assures to look into issue of Indian students’ return from Ukraine

PTI, Feb 17, 2022, 8:05 PM IST

Union minister Jyotiraditya Scindia on Thursday assured to look into the issue of facilitating safe return of Indian students from Ukraine amid the threat of Russian invasion there. He gave the assurance while responding to a tweet by Vivek Tankha, Congress’s Rajya Sabha member from Madhya Pradesh. In his Twitter post, Tankha appealed to Scindia, Civil Aviation Minister, and S Jaishankar, Foreign Minister, to facilitate safe return of Indian students from Ukraine.

”Appeal to @DrSJaishankar @JM_Scindia to facilitate earliest return of Indian students from Ukraine. Ukraine tickets very expensive. Subsidise or allow 1 time free travel. As an MP and Lawyer I and many others can help GOI for short fall in special cases. Help #Indian#students#Ukraine,” Tankha said in the tweet, in which he tagged Scindia and Jaishankar.

”Sure, will look into it,” Scindia said in his brief reply. Tankha’s plea to the two ministers came hours after the US and NATO leaders said that there is no meaningful pullback of Russian forces from Ukrainian border despite Moscow’s show and claim of drawdown. It also came on the day when India’s Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) said that India does not have any immediate plan to evacuate its citizens from Ukraine and its focus has been on ensuring their safety rather than on anything ”larger”.

There are said to be more than 20,000 Indian students in Ukraine, most of them studying medicine.

Notably, India had on Tuesday advised its citizens in Ukraine to temporarily leave that country amid escalating tension between Russia and NATO countries over the eastern European nation. In an advisory, the Indian embassy in Kyiv asked Indian nationals to avoid all non-essential travel to and within Ukraine.