A day after Russia accused Ukraine of holding Indian students as hostage, the Ministry of External Affairs has rejected the claim. The MEA has clarified that it hasn’t received any reports of Indians being held as hostage and said that it requested support of Ukrainian authorities to arrange special trains for the evacuation of students trapped in Kharkiv.

Ukraine also countered the Russian accusation and asked the Russian Federation to immediately cease hostilities in Kharkiv so that they can arrange evacuation of the civilian population, including Indian students to safer cities in Ukraine.

The MEA’s clarification came within hours after Russia and Ukraine traded accusations and charges.

External Affairs Ministry spokesperson Arindam Bagchi said, “Our Embassy in Ukraine is in continuous touch with Indian nationals in Ukraine. We note that with the cooperation of the Ukrainian authorities, many students have left Kharkiv yesterday.”

He added, “We have requested support of the Ukrainian authorities in arranging special trains for taking out students from Kharkiv and neighbouring areas to the western part of the country,” according to a report by the Indian Express.

The Russian claim was made by the Russian Embassy in India in their readout of the phone conversation between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and President Vladimir Putin on Wednesday. However, there was no mention of such things in the Indian statement.

About 4,000 Indians, mostly medical college students are still stuck in Kharkiv, according to estimates. Earlier, the Indian embassy had asked all Indians in Kharkiv to immediately leave the conflict zone by any means available, including by foot to safer regions. India is carrying out a special evacuation operation to bring Indian citizens home from Ukraine.

The Centre has initiated 'Operation Ganga' to bring back Indians stranded in Ukraine. Prime Minister Narendra Modi sent Union ministers Hardeep Singh Puri, Jyotiraditya Scindia, Kiren Rijiju and Gen (Retd) VK Singh to neighbouring countries of Ukraine to coordinate the evacuation mission.

Tata Group-led Air India is flying evacuation flights from Bucharest and Budapest. The first evacuation flight, AI1944, brought back 219 people from Ukraine via Bucharest to Mumbai on Saturday evening, while the second evacuation flight reached New Delhi at around 2.45 am on Sunday with 250 Indian nationals.

SpiceJet has joined other airlines in India's efforts to bring back Indians stranded in Ukraine. The budget airline will operate two flights from Bucharest, one each from Budapest and Kocise in Slovakia.

Indian Air Force will be bringing back Indians from Bucharest.

SpiceJet will operate 31 flights between March 2 and March 8 to bring back more than 6,300 people.

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(Edited by : Thomas Abraham)