Continuing its efforts for speedy evacuation of Indian nationals from the conflict-struck Ukraine, the Central Government on Monday decided to send four senior Union Ministers to five neighbouring countries of Ukraine to oversee the evacuation process of Indians, mostly students, who are stranded there following the Russian invasion.
The decision was taken at a high-level meeting chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
Union Ministers Hardeep Puri, Jyotiraditya Scindia, Kiren Rijiju, and V K Singh will be going as "special envoys" of India, Government sources said.
Scindia will take care of evacuation efforts from Romania and Moldova while Rijiju will go to Slovakia.
Puri will go to Hungary, while Singh will be in Poland to manage the evacuation.
The decision to send these Ministers came a day after Modi asserted that ensuring the safety of Indian students and evacuating them is the government's top priority.
The meeting was also attended by several Ministers, including External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar and Commerce Minister Piyush Goyal, National Security Adviser Ajit Doval, and Foreign Secretary Harsh Vardhan Shringla among other senior officials.
It was decided at the meeting to further enhance cooperation with the neighbouring countries of Ukraine to expedite the evacuation of Indian students, sources had said.
Singh said the PM has directed that " people need to be escorted back home safely".
"That (even if you're struck on Mars, the Indian Embassy will help you) is philosophy of Govt led by PM Modi. PM is visionary in his thinking and decided to dispatch 4 ministers to countries bordering Ukraine to help better coordinate evacuation of Indian nationals," the Union Minister tweeted.
After the meet, the Foreign Secretary reportedly briefed a parliamentary panel on the situation in Ukraine amid a Russian military offensive and India's efforts to evacuate its citizens through land check-posts with five neighbouring countries.
Shringla informed the Parliamentary Standing Committee on External Affairs that Russian-speaking officers had been sent to the border check-posts and Indian Embassies in Ukraine's five neighbouring countries-- Hungary, Poland, Romania, Slovakia and Moldova -- to boost evacuation efforts.
The parliamentary panel chaired by BJP leader PP Chaudhary met on Monday to deliberate on the Ministry's Demand for Grants for the financial year 2022-23.
On its members' request, Shringla gave a detailed briefing on the current situation in Ukraine and, in particular, the evacuation of Indian nationals, sources said.
The committee members were briefed about the details of the Operation Ganga launched by the Government to repatriate Indian nationals from Ukraine.
It was informed that the evacuation was being conducted through identified land check-posts with five countries neighbouring Ukraine -- Hungary, Poland, Romania, Slovakia and Moldova -- a parliamentarian present in the meeting said.
Shringla told the committee that so far around 1,200 students had returned in five flights. Several thousand others had crossed the Ukrainian border or were in the process of doing so, sources said.
The committee was also briefed on the measures being taken by the government to work with the International Committee of the Red Cross in ensuring the safety of Indian nationals in Ukraine, they said.
Reports of several Indian students having taken shelter in bunkers while others living in tents and running short of food and water have appeared in social media. The temperature has dropped to a sub-zero level and it's snowing in most parts of war-torn Ukraine.
Nationals from Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Jharkhand, West Bengal, Jammu and Kashmir, Maharashtra, and Kerala are in Ukraine. Several States have issued helplines to make contact with the stranded nationals, especially students.