The last big group of about 700 Indian students evacuated from the northeastern Ukrainian city of Sumy has boarded a special train from Poltava and are likely to board a flight to India from Poland on Thursday.
The train will take the students to Lviv in western Ukraine, from where they will be taken to Poland in buses, Anshad Ali, a student coordinator, said. The distance between Poltava and Lviv is around 888 km.Covering hundreds of miles across Ukraine, using multiple means of transport, the students are being evacuated from the war-hit east European country after their two weeks of excruciating stay in beleaguered Sumy.The Indian government is carrying out a most delicate and challenging evacuation exercise under Operation Ganga to help stranded Indians leave Ukraine.
The operation in Sumy began on Tuesday morning when the last big group of around 700 Indians was evacuated from the city.The Indian nationals were taken from Sumy in a convoy of 13 buses escorted by the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) to Poltava city, Ali said.The students are enduring a strenuous journey to escape the war-hit region. This is the second attempt to evacuate students from Sumy, which has been witnessing heavy shelling and intense fire ever since a Russian offensive on Ukraine began last month.
