India has evacuated a Bangladeshi national from the war-ravaged Ukraine under its ongoing evacuation mission styled “Operation Ganga”.
“A Bangladeshi has been evacuated as part of India’s ongoing mission to pull Indians out of Ukraine,” said Arindam Bagchi, the spokesperson of the Indian Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) here on Friday evening at the special media briefing.
But the identity of the Bangladeshi citizen believed to be a student was not ascertained immediately. It is the first time a citizen of one of India’s neighbouring countries has been evacuated from Ukraine.
Responding to a media query, he said India has also received a request from a Nepalese national for evacuation.
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi last week offered India’s assistance to evacuate citizens of neighbouring South Asian nations if the latter wanted.
India has been conducting the biggest ever evacuation operation titled “Operation Ganga” from Ukraineand and so far over 10,300 Indians have been brought back in 48 flights.
Responding to another query, the spokesperson said around 300 Indians are still stranded in Kharkiv and 700 are in Sumy in Ukraine while some citizens out of over 900 are being taken out of Pisochyn in five buses.
He said India is primarily focusing on evacuating its nationals out of the conflict zones in eastern Ukraine including from Kharkiv and Sum, adding that the total number of Indians stuck in Ukraine could be roughly in the range of 2,000 to 3,000.
Replying to several question, Bagchi said India was in touch with all parties concerned on the evacuation of the Indians and sought a “local ceasefire” in the conflict zones to get them out of the areas witnessing fighting and violence.
He said around 20,000 Indians have left Ukraine’s borders since India issued its first travel advisories in mid-February.
However, an Indian student was killed in shelling in Kharkiv, the second largest city in Ukraine on Wednesday.
