NEW DELHI, March 17: About 50 Indian nationals are still believed to be in Ukraine and the government is exploring various options amid intense fighting to bring out up to 20 citizens who have expressed a desire to return to the country.
More than 22,500 nationals had returned from Ukraine, including on special flights operated from Hungary, Poland, Romania and Slovakia after Russia launched an attack on Ukraine on February 24.
External affairs ministry spokesperson Arindam Bagchi said on Thursday that about 50 Indian nationals were in Ukraine till about two to three days ago. “Our assessment is that 15 to 20 people are there who want to leave, and the rest don’t want to leave,” he told a media briefing.
These Indians are in isolated pockets and their numbers fluctuated amid the rapidly evolving situation, he said. Authorities are in contact with all the Indians still in
Ukraine and “are helping them to the extent possible”, he added.
“It is a war situation and we will explore options to get them out,” Bagchi said, adding that the options included routes to Russia from eastern Ukraine and routes leading to the country’s western borders. He said some Indians were evacuated via Russia as they were in a Russian-controlled area and it was easier to move them to Crimea and then Moscow.
Bagchi declined to comment on reports that negotiations on ending the war were focusing on the issue of Ukraine’s “neutrality” and said the Indian side had been clear and consistent that the crisis could only be resolved through diplomacy and dialogue. This message was also conveyed in India’s contacts with all parties to the conflict.
“Our basic message has been the need for diplomacy and dialogue, that’s the way forward. The exact contours of what kind of an understanding that can be reached, I would leave it to the protagonists involved, rather than comment on our views of what could be and what is on the table,” he said.
Asked about the government’s views on Justice Dalveer Bhandari, an Indian member of the International Court of Justice (ICJ), voting against Russia when the UN’s top court directed Russia to suspend its invasion of Ukraine on Wednesday, Bagchi said the judges “work in their individual capacities”.
“I do not wish to get into a situation where I am commenting on how judges of the ICJ should be voting. They are [there] in their individual capacities and they vote on the merits of [a case],” he said.
To say that Bhandari is “India’s judge” is a “loose use of words”, and Bhandari “happens to be an Indian national who is a member, in his individual capacity, of the ICJ”, he said.
Bagchi noted that India had abstained on voting on certain resolutions at UN bodies “based on the text that is on the table”, and the country had clarified its position in this regard.
(Manas Dasgupta)