Russian President Vladimir Putin on Wednesday said Indian students in Kharkiv had been “kidnapped by Ukrainian security forces” through a “human shield”.
NEW DelHI: India has denied protests between Russia and Ukraine on Thursday that Indian people were being abducted in Kharkiv in eastern Ukraine and said it had asked Ukrainian authorities to arrange special trains to evacuate its citizens from the besieged city.
India’s clarification came just hours after Russia and Ukraine traded in Indian cases of kidnappings in Kharkiv, which saw Russia’s largest bomb blast two days ago. India has intensified its efforts to evacuate its citizens from Kharkiv following the death of an Indian student in the city on Tuesday.
“We have not received any reports about any student,” said Foreign Ministry spokesman Arindam Bagchi.
“We have requested the support of the Ukrainian authorities in arranging special trains to transport students from Kharkiv and neighboring areas to the western part of the country,” he added.
An Indian spokesman’s statement contradicted Russian President Vladimir Putin’s statement in a telephone interview with Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Wednesday that Indian students in Kharkiv had been “kidnapped by Ukrainian security forces” because they were being used “as a human shield.” ”.
There were an estimated 4,000 Indians, most of them students, in Kharkiv, Sumy, and other cities in eastern Ukraine. India on Wednesday urged all Indians to leave Kharkiv by any means, including walking, within five hours to the three safest locations located 15 kilometers from the city.
Bagchi said the Indian ambassador to Ukraine “kept in touch” with its tribes nationwide and that “many students” left Kharkiv on Wednesday in cooperation with Ukrainian authorities.
India has also been working closely with Ukraine’s neighbors, including Russia, Romania, Poland, Hungary, Slovakia and Moldova, and a large number of its people have been evacuated from Ukraine in the past few days, he said.
“We appreciate the assistance provided by the Ukrainian authorities to make this possible. We thank the neighbors of western Ukraine for welcoming the Indians and for accommodating them while they wait for flights to take them home, ”said Bagchi.
Bagchi also told a special press conference on Wednesday that an estimated 17,000 Indians had left Ukraine since India issued its first advice, before the Russian invasion of the country began.
On Wednesday, Putin told Modi during a telephone conversation that the necessary instructions had been given and that Russian troops were doing everything possible to “secure the removal of Indian citizens from the war zone”.
“The Russian side … is trying to arrange for the immediate exit of a group of Indian students from Kharkiv through a shortcut to Russia,” Putin was quoted as saying in a study in the Kremlin.
Putin said the Indian students were “kidnapped by Ukrainian security forces, who used them as a human shield and barred them from traveling to Russia.” He added that the responsibility rests with the Ukrainian authorities as a whole.
Shortly afterwards, the Ukrainian Foreign Ministry, in a statement, dismissed Russia’s allegations and said students from India, Pakistan, China and other countries could not travel to Kharkiv and Sumy because of “indiscriminate bombings and brutal arrows by the Russian Armed Forces”.
“We urgently call on the governments of India, Pakistan, China and other countries, whose students have been held hostage to Russian violence in Kharkiv and Sumy, to demand that Moscow allow the opening of a humanitarian corridor on the Ukrainian side,” the department said.