Evacuation from Sumy top priority, says MEA of India

India on Saturday said its focus now was on the evacuation of around 700 Indian students stranded in the Ukrainian city of Sumy that has been witnessing bombing and airstrikes, Trend reports citing The Tribune.

At a media briefing, Ministry of External Affairs spokesperson Arindam Bagchi said, “India hopes to evacuate its citizens from Kharkiv and Pisochyn at the earliest. Our focus is now on evacuating Indian students from Sumy. We are exploring multiple options for their evacuation.”

Bagchi reiterated India’s call to Russia and Ukraine to go for a local ceasefire so that Indians could be moved out of conflict zones. “Our challenge in the evacuation of the Indians from Sumy is the ongoing shelling and violence and lack of transportation,” he said.