Russia, Ukraine agree on safe corridors for evacuating civilians

Sandeep Dikshit

New Delhi, March 3

Amidst the fighting, a member of Ukraine’s delegation in talks with Russia said the two sides had reached a tentative agreement to organise safe corridors for evacuating civilians and for humanitarian supplies.

Mykhailo Podolyak, adviser to Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, who took part in Thursday’s talks in Belarus near the Polish border, said Russia and Ukraine had reached a preliminary understanding that ceasefires would be observed in areas where the safe corridors were established.

Meanwhile, Russian President Vladimir Putin alleged that “neo-Nazis” affiliated with the Ukrainian security forces had kept 3,000 Indian students hostage in the cities of Kharkiv and Sumy.

3,000 evacuated in 15 flights

3,500 expected to return today

3,900 may be flown tomorrow

130 buses ready

130 buses are ready to leave for Kharkiv and Sumy from Nekhoteyevka and Sudzha in Belgorod to rescue Indian students and others. —Col-Gen Mizintsev, Russia

India had on Wednesday denied competing claims by Ukraine and Russia that the other side had held Indian students hostage in Kharkiv. Neo-Nazis, Putin said, opened fire on Chinese students, injuring two as hundreds of foreigners wanting to leave the hostile zone were not allowed to do so.

Revealing its softer side, Moscow said it had kept 130 buses ready for evacuating stranded Indians and other foreigners from Kharkiv and Sumy cities to Russia’s Belgorod region. Russia has set up camps at checkpoints where evacuees will be provided meals and transported to Belgorod for their departure by air. Even as Russia announced the capture of the city of Kherson, its military columns are reportedly some distance from Kyiv. The sanctions around Moscow kept tightening with the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB) putting its investment in Russia and Belarus on hold. Russia is the third largest shareholder in AIIB after China and India.

The pace of India’s evacuation operation, meanwhile, gained momentum with the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) saying about 1,000 Indians had left the worst-affected city of Kharkiv to a nearby town. The Indian side is in touch with Ukrainian and Russian authorities to evacuate Indians from Kharkiv and Sumy.

Foreign Secretary Harsh Vardhan Shringla too spoke to his Ukrainian counterpart on the evacuation of Indian students. “We are currently looking at transportation options to move them from there to western Ukraine or southern Ukraine, depending on the transportation options,” he added.