Stalin urges Centre to rescue stranded Tamils from Ukraine

Chennai, Feb 25 Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M.K.Stalin on Friday requested Union External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar to take urgent steps to bring back Tamil stranded in Ukraine.

In a telephonic conversation with the Union minister, he apprised him that of the 5,000 stranded people from Tamil Nadu, a majority are students.

He told Jaishankar that the Chief Minister's office and he himself were receiving frantic calls from the parents of the stranded students to bring their children back to the safety of homes.

Stalin, according to officials, urged the Union Minister to appoint a nodal officer to coordinate with the state government to bring the students back to India. He said that with a large number of Tamil students and others in Ukraine, the government of India must act immediately.

He had also written to the minister in this regard on Thursday, saying: "I request the Government of India to take this issue up with the authorities in Ukraine for evacuating them out of that country immediately. Also, special flights like Vande Bharat Mission to evacuate them from various parts of Ukraine can be arranged."

The Chief Minister said that the government has opened 24x7 help desks and a special nodal officer has been appointed to coordinate with the students, parents, and Government of India to evacuate the students at the earliest.

R. Mayilsami from Erode, father of M.R. Soumya, who is pursuing medicine at Kyiv university while speaking to said: "My daughter is stranded there. She had called us on WhatsApp and asked us to bring her back to India and I have been frantically contacting our officials for the same. I am glad that our Chief Minister has taken up the matter with the Union External affairs minister and we expect an evacuation in the line of Vande Bharat mission to take place soon."

Parents and family members of the students stranded in Ukraine are expecting that the students reach home at the earliest after high level of diplomatic maneuvers.