Ukraine conflict: Deeply engaged in evacuation of Indians from Kharkiv, says embassy

The Indian embassy in Ukraine on Friday said that it was deeply engaged in ensuring the safe evacuation of Indian citizens from the city conflict-ridden Kharkiv.

"Deeply engaged to ensure the safe evacuation of our citizens from Kharkiv, including Pisochyn. Have already successfully evacuated the vast majority from Kharkiv city. Organising buses for evacuation from Pisochyn tomorrow at Government of India cost," the embassy said on Twitter.

"Despite major adversities, delivered food and water to our students in Pisochyn, Kharkiv," the embassy said in another tweet.

As many as 20,000 Indians have left Ukraine since the embassy issued its first travel advisory.

Addressing the special briefing on Operation Ganga, External Affairs Ministry spokesperson Arindam Bagchi added that there are more people left in Ukraine.

"During the 24 hours, 18 flights have landed in India with around 4,000 Indians on board. The total number of flights that have landed have been 48, carrying 10348 Indians," Bagchi said.

UN humanitarians on Friday described as "unprecedented," the continuing outflow of children and families fleeing the "relentless shelling" of Russian military action in Ukraine - as they await assurances for the safe passage of relief teams to provide urgently needed assistance.

"500,000 children have been forced to flee their homes in just seven days... unprecedented in scale and speed," James Elder, spokesperson for the UN Children's Fund (UNICEF), said via video link from Lviv in western Ukraine.

( With inputs from ANI )