The death of a 21-year-old Indian medical student who was killed in the Ukrainian city of Kharkiv on Tuesday, one of the first foreign nationals to die in the conflict, has thrown a spotlight on the tens of thousands of Indian students who remain trapped in the country since Russia’s invasion began.
According to the Indian foreign ministry, there were initially 20,000 Indian citizens in Ukraine, mostly students. So far around 12,000 have been successfully rescued but another 8,000 remain in heavy conflict areas or are still making their way to the borders.
Ukraine is a popular destination for Indian students, who flock to Ukrainian universities for the less competitive admission and low cost to study subjects such as medicine and engineering.
The student who died was identified as Naveen Shekharappa Gyanagoudar, 21, from the southern Indian state of Karnataka. He was a fourth year medical student at Kharkiv National Medical University.
According to classmates who were with him, Gyanagoudar died when there was an air strike and shelling as he was lining up for food outside of a shop in the city.
A friend told the Indian Express:
Naveen was shot dead around 10.30 am Ukrainian time today. He was standing in the queue before a grocery shop when the Russian army fired at people. We have no information about his body.
Many other Indian students remain in bunkers in Kharkiv, said his friend.
His death was confirmed by a spokesperson for India’s Ministry of External affairs who tweeted:
With profound sorrow we confirm that an Indian student lost his life in shelling in Kharkiv this morning.
In a background briefing, the Indian government said India had repeatedly taken up the issue of safe passage of Indian nationals with both Russia and Ukraine, and an Indian evacuation team was positioned in the Russian city of Belgorod, close to the Ukrainian border.
Indian prime minister Narendra Modi said that in his call with Putin a few days ago, he had raised the issue of the safety of Indian students.
Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF), or Doctors without Borders, is setting up emergency response activities in Ukraine and deploying teams in Poland, Moldova, Hungary, Romania and Slovakia.
The international humanitarian medical organisation said teams had distributed war-wounded kits in the key port city of Mariupol.
The organisation said they have also provided telemedicine training for trauma care for 30 surgeons from eastern Ukraine.
At the Ukraine-Poland border, MSF teams are currently trying to get essential staff and supplies into Ukraine and set up emergency response activities across both sides of the border.
In a statement, MSF said:
Our teams at the Ukraine-Poland border checkpoints are seeing people cross over on foot, in cars and on buses, many tired and exhausted, and some with children as young as 25 days old.
Many of those crossing the Polish border told us they spent long hours in queues in freezing temperatures. Some were dehydrated and others suffered from hypothermia.
Kyiv TV tower hit by missile, killing five
Updated at 5.08pm GMT
The EU is looking at cutting Russia’s second largest bank, VTB, from the Swift bank messaging system, along with six others that play a vital role in the Russian economy, our Brussels correspondent, Jennifer Rankin, reports.
An EU source confirmed reports that the EU is seeking to ban VTB and six other banks from Swift, the messaging system that underpins much global trade, pending a final decision by EU member state senior officials later on Tuesday.
The other banks that could be excluded from Swift include three already sanctioned by the EU last week: Rossiya Bank, believed by EU and western officials to be the personal bank for Vladimir Putin and many of his officials; Promsvyazbank and Vnesheconombank (VEB), both considered by EU officials to be instructed personally by the Russian president, with a key role in financing Russia’s defence sector.
The EU has already sanctioned the VTB chair and deputy prime minister, Dmitry Grigorenko, as well as the VEB chair, Igor Shuvlov, in an earlier round of sanctions adopted on the eve of the Russian invasion.
Earlier in the day, the European Commission president, Ursula von der Leyen, said EU sanctions would take “a heavy toll on the Russian economy and the Kremlin”.
She said:
We are disconnecting key Russian banks from the Swift network. We also banned the transactions of Russia’s central bank, the single most important financial institution in Russia. This paralyses billions in foreign reserves, turning off the tap on Putin’s war.
EU officials are also likely to finalise a decision announced on Sunday to ban Russia’s state-backed channels RT and Sputnik. The two outlets and all their subsidiaries are likely to be added to an EU sanctions list, making it impossible to do business with them.
Some EU officials are also interested in granting passports to qualified Russian nationals, seeking to emigrate from Putin’s Russia.
In her speech to the European parliament, Von der Leyen referred to the thousands of Russians who have been arrested in anti-war protests, saying:
There is another Russia besides Putin’s tanks. We extend our hand of friendship to this other Russia.
But the idea has yet to be put to EU member states that are responsible for decisions on visa policy. Diplomats pointed out that many countries already run schemes to attract skilled workers that could be used by talented Russians, while stressing that visas were national, rather than EU competences.
Updated at 4.52pm GMT
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An average of 50,000 Ukrainian refugees are entering Poland each day, which so far has taken in over 280,000 people, according to the UN.
When, at the end of January, Poland’s deputy interior minister, Maciej Wąsik, said his country had “to be prepared for a wave of up to a million people” in the event of a major Russian invasion of Ukraine, many thought he was exaggerating.
At this rate, Warsaw could be facing Europe’s largest wave of refugees since the second world war.
At the same time, however, thousands of Ukrainians are leaving Europe to return to Ukraine and join the fighting.
Among them are many women determined to bring back their children, who are stuck in the cities that have been invaded by the Russians. Some of these women told me they are even ready to take up arms.
Updated at 4.21pm GMT
SOURCE: The Guardian
