(Rpting, with correction in para two, opening line)
Moscow/New Delhi, Mar 3 : Russian President Vladimir Putin has said that Ukrainian ‘neo-Nazis’ have taken more than 3,000 Indian students hostage at the train station in Kharkiv, “and they continue keeping them there”, even as India has said it has not received any reports of Indians being held hostage.
Putin told the Russian Security Council that the Ukrainian ‘neo Nazis’ are using the foreign students as human shields, and that they are also holding 576 Indians in Sumy, in eastern Ukraine.
Putin also said the Ukrainians opened fire on Chinese students who wanted to leave Kharkiv, wounding two of them.
“They are taking foreign citizens hostage, thousands of young people, students who were studying in Ukraine colleges.
“For more than one day they kept more than 3,000 Indian citizens at the train station in Kharkiv and they continue keeping them there, including 576 people in the city of Sumy.
“The neo-Nazis opened fire on Chinese students who wanted to leave Kharkiv, two of them were wounded.
“Hundreds of foreigners want to leave the hostility zone but they are not allowed to.
“Basically they are taking prisoners, trying to delay their leave, or trying to evacuate them via Poland, making them travel across the whole area of hostilities, that is risking their lives.
“Our military opened safe passage, to allow them to leave safely, they are giving them transport so that civilians, foreign citizens get an opport ty to move to safer zones. “But nationalists are not allowing this to happen,” he said.
Putin during his talks with Prime Minister Narendra Modi last night had conveyed that a group of Indian students has been “effectively taken hostage by Ukrainian security services” in Kharkiv who are using them as human shields and preventing them from leaving via Russia.
“Responsibility in this case fully rests with the Kyiv authorities”, Putin told PM Modi, according to a Kremlin readout of the talks.
On Thursday, the MEA spokesperson said in a statement that they have not received any reports of Indians being held hostage by the Ukrainians.
The spokesperson said “Our Embassy in Ukraine is in continuous touch with Indian nationals in Ukraine. We note that with the cooperation of the Ukrainian authorities, many students have left Kharkiv yesterday.
“We have not received any reports of any hostage situation regarding any student. We have requested support of the Ukrainian authorities in arranging special trains for taking out students from Kharkiv and neighbouring areas to the western part of the country.
“We have been coordinating effectively with the countries in the region including Russia, Romania, Poland, Hungary, Slovakia and Moldova. A large number of Indian nationals have been evacuated from Ukraine in the last few days. “We appreciate the help extended by the Ukrainian authorities to make this possible. We thank Ukraine’s western neighbours in receiving Indian nationals and for accommodating them while they waited for flights to take them back home,” the statement said.
RN
