External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar said in Parliament on Tuesday during the ongoing budget session that India undertook the “most challenging evacuation exercise” to bring back stranded Indians from Ukraine during the Russian invasion.
In a briefing to the Rajya Sabha on the evacuation exercise under the central government’s Operation Ganga, Jaishankar said that the hostilities between Russia and Ukraine had put over 20,000 Indian nationals in Ukraine, the most of whom were students, in danger.
Even before armed conflict started, the foreign minister announced the Indian government’s step-by-step approach to rescuing Indian people in Ukraine. ‘In January 2022, as tensions rose, the Indian Embassy in Ukraine began a registration drive for Indians. As a result, some 20,000 Indians signed up. Despite the warnings, a large number of students chose to remain at home,’ Jaishankar said.
He explained that certain Ukrainian universities ‘actively discouraged’ and ‘showed reluctance’ to offer online courses because of a ‘natural reluctance’ to quit educational institutions, which could harm their studies.
Post Your Comments