An Indian student was shot multiple times while trying to escape from the war-torn Kyiv, the capital city of Ukraine. Identified as Harjot Singh, the youth is now recuperating in a hospital in Kyiv. A 21-year-old medical student Naveen Shakarappa from Karnataka was killed three days back in Kharkiv during shelling. He was the first Indian casualty of the war.
Harjot, hailing from New Delhi, was injured, Union Minister VK Singh said on Friday. He was trying to leave the capital when he was shot at, the Minister said in Poland. Singh told news agency ANI that he got assurances from the Indian Embassy every day but no help came through. “I have been trying to get in touch with them, every day they say we will do something but no help yet,” Singh said.
Ministry of External Affairs Spokesperson Arindam Bagchi said here on Friday the Indian Embassy is trying to reach out to Harjot and will bear the entire medical expense. “We are trying to ascertain his medical status... Our embassy is trying to get an update on his health status...trying to reach out but facing trouble as it’s a conflict zone,” he said.
As regards the evacuation efforts, Bagchi said it was difficult without a ceasefire and urged all the parties concerned — Ukraine and Russia — to have a local ceasefire to enable India to bring out its students.
The Government was focussing on eastern Ukraine, including Kharkiv and Sumy, and managed to operationalise five buses and more buses were likely to be deployed by evening, he said, adding nearly 700 Indians were in Sumy and 300 in Kharkiv besides 900-1,000 in Pisochin. He also said India had requested Ukraine for special trains and was yet to hear from them.
On reports regarding Indians held hostage, Bagchi said, “We are reiterating that we are not aware of any Indian being held hostage. They are facing difficulty due to security reasons particularly in Kharkiv, but no hostage situation.”
Meanwhile, narrating the harrowing experience, Harjot told a private television channel he was shot multiple times while trying to escape from Kyiv in a cab last week and suffered a fractured leg. He lay on the road, wounded, for hours until an ambulance took him to hospital.
Harjot said he was not allowed to board a train at the Kyiv station, so he and his friends hired a cab to Lviv, one of the cities spared the worst of the Russian invasion till now. They were on their way out of Kyiv when “many people” started shooting at their cab.
“A bullet entered from my shoulder. They took out a bullet from my chest...my leg was fractured. There was a bullet in one knee,” Harjot said.
“I wanted some facility to take me to Lviv. But no one has contacted me. Only NDTV reached out to me. Now the whole world will know the reality of what is happening,” he remarked.
Harjot said he was shot on Sunday night and has since been in the hospital, 20 minutes from the Indian Embassy.
“I contacted the Embassy people and asked if they can provide the facility to take me to Lviv. They kept asking me questions. I had to repeat my story several times. I can’t walk. I told them I can come out of the hospital, but they have to give me the facilities, they should take me to Lviv. But all I get is fake comments,” he said.
Meanwhile, the IAF has kept two IL-76 military transport aircraft on standby to evacuate Indians who are stranded in conflict-hit eastern Ukrainian cities like Sumy and Kharkiv from Russian capital Moscow.
Till now, India has been evacuating its citizens from Ukraine’s western neighbours such as Romania, Slovakia, Poland and Hungary as the Ukrainian airspace has remained shut since February 24.
On Thursday, Bagchi had said around 1,000 Indians reached Pisochyn from Kharkiv following the urgent advisory issued by the Indian embassy in Ukraine on Wednesday.
“We estimate that a few hundred people still remain in Kharkiv despite our advisory,” Bagchi said, adding that unfortunately there has been a fresh outbreak of violence in the city on Thursday.