Citizen safety is focus, not evacuation: MEA on Ukraine-Russia tensions

India has no immediate plan to evacuate its citizens from Ukraine and its focus has been on ensuring their safety rather than on anything “larger”, the Minry of External Affairs said Thursday.
MEA spokesperson Arindam Bagchi said at a media briefing that India supports resolving the Ukraine crisis through sustained diplomatic dialogue. He said the Indian embassy in Kyiv has been in touch with the Indian students in Ukraine and that it continued to monitor the situation on the ground.
“Our focus is and remains on Indian citizens, Indian students, Indian nationals rather than anything larger than that and in terms of what we need to do to ensure that they are safe,” Bagchi said. He said there are no immediate evacuation plans and that no special flights are being arranged.

Noting that there were a limited number of flights between India and Ukraine under the air-bubble arrangement, Bagchi said the restrictions on the number of flights and the passengers are being removed.
“Indian carriers are being encouraged to operate charter flights between India and Ukraine,” he said