Russia Violated its Own Ceasefire Offer, Indian Students Advised to “Stay Inside”
Manas Dasgupta
NEW DELHI, March 5: Russia announced a temporary five-hour ceasefire in two areas of Ukraine to allow civilian evacuation but the Ukrainian authorities called the assurance a lie and said he evacuation of the civilian population was “postponed” as Russia continued shelling the areas.
In Delhi too, the Indian external affairs ministry said it had advised the desperate students to take “safety precautions, stay inside shelters and avoid unnecessary risks,” the ministry’s official spokesman Arindam Bagchi said. “We are deeply concerned about Indian students in Sumy, Ukraine. Have strongly pressed Russian and Ukrainian governments through multiple channels for an immediate ceasefire to create a safe corridor for our students,” he said.
The advice was given after the Indian students stranded in northeast Ukraine’s Sumy city shared videos saying they have decided to take a risky journey to the Russian border that’s about 50 kilometres away. In what they claimed would be their “last video” from Sumy, they said the Indian government and its embassy in Ukraine would be responsible if anything happened to them. The students have, however, decided not to leave after they were contacted by the embassy.
The exasperated students for the last few days had been pleading for urgent measures to evacuate them from Ukraine as they were running out of food, water and shelter in the biting cold outside with intense shelling continuing around the bunkers they have collected en masse to escape from firing.
Earlier in the day, the Russia’s defence ministry said the Russian army would be observing a five-hour ceasefire in two areas to allow humanitarian corridors out of the Ukrainian cities of Mariupol and Volnovakha, the first breakthrough in allowing civilians to escape the war. While laying siege to Mariupol for days, Russian forces have also cut its electricity, food, water, heating and transportation in the depths of winter, prompting comparisons to the Nazi blockade of Leningrad in World War II. The defence ministry said it had agreed on evacuation routes with Ukrainian forces to allow civilians to leave the strategic port of Mariupol in the southeast and the eastern town of Volnovakha “from 10 a.m. Moscow time” (8 a.m. GMT.) A top official in Mariupol said the cease-fire there is to last until 4 p.m. (2 p.m. GMT).
The civilians were told to leave the war zones during the ceasefire hours but soon afterwards, Mariupol city officials said “due to the fact that Russian side does not adhere to the ceasefire and has continued shelling both of Mariupol itself and its environs and for security reasons, the evacuation of the civilian population has been postponed.”
Authorities in the Ukrainian city of Mariupol said an evacuation of civilians planned for Saturday had been postponed as Russian forces encircling the city were not respecting an agreed ceasefire. In a statement, the city council asked residents to return to shelters in the city and wait for further information on evacuation. Ukrainian presidential adviser Oleksiy Arestovych said in a televised broadcast that Russia was not observing an agreed ceasefire in certain areas, thwarting a joint plant to allow civilians to evacuate from frontline cities such as Mariupol. “For now, we are looking for solutions to humanitarian problems and all possible ways to get Mariupol out of the blockade,” said mayor Vadim Boychenko. He called for a ceasefire and a humanitarian corridor for food and medicine.
In yet another move to beat the alleged Russian propaganda, the Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky on Saturday posted another video saying he has not fled the country and was very much staying put in the Ukrainian capital city of Kyiv. In the video posted on Instagram, Zelensky showed his Kyiv office and said, “I am in Kyiv. I am working here. No one has escaped anywhere.”
The video message came after Russian State Duma Speaker Vyacheslav Volodin on Friday said that Zelensky had fled Ukraine and was in Poland. “Zelensky left Ukraine. Deputies of the Verkhonva Rada said they could not get to him in Lvov. He is now in Poland.” Russian media reported.
Zelensky has been extremely vocal about the Ukrainian sovereignty amid the Russian offensive, continuously interacting with the world through videos and tweets. As Russian forces batter strategic locations, Zelensky strongly criticised NATO for refusing to impose a no fly zone above Ukraine saying it would fully untie Russia’s hands as it escalates its attack from the air. NATO refused to impose a no-fly zone, warning that to do so could provoke widespread war in Europe with nuclear-armed Russia.
Zelensky told the NATO, “All the people who die from this day forward will also die because of you.”
Ukrainians fleeing into central European pleaded for Western nations to take tougher steps against Russia following Moscow’s invasion that has created more than 1 million refugees asking the NATO members to “close the Ukrainian sky.” At the Medyka crossing, Poland’s busiest, along its roughly 500-kilometre border with Ukraine, refugees called for a no-fly zone over Ukraine. The local officials claimed that in the northern city of Chernihiv, 47 people died on Thursday when Russian forces bombed residential areas, including schools and a high-rise apartment block.
Since Russian army invaded Ukraine on February 24, Russia has pummelled Ukrainian cities, killed hundreds of civilians and assaulted Europe’s largest atomic power plant. The invasion has drawn condemnation and severe sanctions from Western nations balancing punishment of the Kremlin with fears of a hazardous escalation. Moscow has seized two key cities in its 10-day-long invasion, Berdiansk and Kherson on Ukraine’s southern Black Sea coast.
But capturing Mariupol, a city of about 450,000 people on the Azov Sea, would represent a bigger prize for Russian forces as it would deal a severe blow to Ukraine’s maritime access and connect troops coming from annexed Crimea and the Donbas.
Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said Moscow was waiting for a third round of talks with Ukraine in Belarus, and one of Kyiv’s negotiators said it hoped to hold them this weekend. Zelensky is set to appeal to Washington for more assistance later on Saturday evening when address the US Senate as some lawmakers urged President Joe Biden to take tougher measures, including banning Russia’s oil imports.
India’s foreign ministry, meanwhile, said it had “strongly pressed” the Russian and Ukrainian governments through multiple channels for an immediate ceasefire to create a safe corridor for its students stranded amidst the raging war in Ukraine. It also claimed that the ministry and Indian embassies are in regular touch with the students, who have been posting desperate and emotional pleas to be evacuated from the conflict-stricken region. In the video from the Sumy State University campus, a large group of students could be seen standing in the snow, packed and ready to leave. They were holding several Indian flags.
“Since morning, we have been constantly listening to boarding, shelling and streetfights. We are afraid, we have waited a lot and we can’t wait anymore. We are risking our lives and moving towards the border. If anything happens to us, all the responsibility will be of the government and the Indian embassy. If anything happens to anyone, Mission Ganga will be the biggest failure,” one of the students says in the video. “Please pray for us…This is our last video,” another student adds.
Students from the University have been constantly posting videos highlighting the dire situations they have been forced to brave. In some videos they were also seen collecting snow to melt for water. They say about 800-900 Indian students have been confined in the hostels of the Medical Institute of Sumy State University for over a week and have nearly run out of food and water. “Nothing has been done for us. We have seen some foreign students leave Sumy on their own, but they were shot. We have videos to show it,” an Indian student said in one of the messages. Behind him, about a hundred students are standing, all looking worried.
The Indian embassy last week warned of intense fighting in Kharkiv, Sumy and Kyiv. Reports say trains and buses have stopped running in Sumy, roads and bridges out of the city have been destroyed, and there is heavy street fighting. Russia informed the UN Security Council that Russian buses are ready at crossing points to go to the eastern Ukrainian cities of Kharkiv and Sumy to evacuate Indian students and other foreign nationals who are stranded there.
“In the Belgorod region of Russia, 130 comfortable buses have been waiting (and standing ready) since 6:00 am today at the crossing points ‘Nekhoteevka’ and ‘Sudja’ ready to go to Kharkiv and Sumy to evacuate the Indian students and other foreign nationals,” Russia’s Permanent Representative to the UN Ambassador Vassily Nebenzia said. The Russian envoy said that the checkpoints are equipped to provide temporary accommodation, space for rest, and hot food. There are also mobile medical stations with a stock of medications.
“Everyone evacuated will then be taken to Belgorod, and from there transported to their homeland by air,” he said. The Indian embassy in Ukraine today said it’s exploring “all possible mechanisms” to evacuate them safely and securely. In a Tweet early morning, it said it has discussed evacuation and identification of exit routes with all interlocutors including the international humanitarian organisation Red Cross.
“Exploring all possible mechanisms to evacuate Indian citizens in Sumy, safely & securely. Discussed evacuation & identification of exit routes with all interlocuters including Red Cross. Control room will continue to be active until all our citizens are evacuated. Be Safe Be Strong,” it said. At least 1,000 Indians – 700 in Sumy and 300 in Kharkiv – are still stranded in conflict zones in eastern Ukraine, the government said on Friday, adding that arranging buses to evacuate them was proving to be the biggest challenge right now.
The Ukrainian Defence Minister Oleksii Reznikov said on Saturday that 66,224 Ukrainian men had returned from abroad to join the fight against Russia’s invasion. “That’s how many men returned from abroad at this moment to defend their country from the horde. These are 12 more combat and motivated brigades! Ukrainians, we are invincible,” Reznikov said in an online post.
Britain urged its nationals on Saturday to consider leaving Russia after Moscow’s decision to invade Ukraine. “If your presence in Russia is not essential, we strongly advise that you consider leaving by remaining commercial routes,” the British government said in a statement. On Monday, Britain advised its citizens against all travel to Russia due to a lack of available flight options and increased economic volatility.
European sources also claimed that many Russians have started leaving the country since is invasion into Ukraine. Passengers arrive in the Finnish capital of Helsinki from St Petersburg, the only current rail link between Russia and the EU. Since the start of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, large numbers of Russians are reported to be looking to leave the country, he sources claimed.
The European Union said it had joined members of the Council of the Baltic Sea States (CBSS) in suspending Russia and Belarus from the Council’s activities. “This decision is a part of the European Union’s and like-minded partners response to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and the involvement of Belarus in this unprovoked and unjustified aggression,” it said on Saturday.
The office of the French President Emmanuel Macron said France would soon propose concrete measures to ensure the safety and security of Ukraine’s five main nuclear sites. The safeguards will be drawn up on the basis of International Atomic Energy Agency criteria, a statement from the French presidency said Saturday. A Russian attack on a nuclear plant sparked a fire on Friday and briefly raised worldwide fears of a catastrophe. The statement said Macron is “extremely concerned about the risks to nuclear safety, security and the implementation of international safeguards resulting from the Russian invasion of Ukraine.”
