VK Singh meets Indian students stranded on Poland-Ukraine border

New Delhi, March 2 (IANS): Union minister General (Retd) V.K. Singh on Wednesday visited Budomierz on the Poland- Ukraine border where he met the stranded Indian students and distributed food and water to them.

These students will be facilitated entry into Poland soon from where they will be sent to India.

After meeting with the Indian students there, Singh said that though they are exhausted, the students are relieved that efforts are being made to bring them back to their motherland.

“Goes without saying that the morale of the students is high and I am impressed by their resilience, Jai Hind,” Singh tweeted.

Singh, one of the special envoys appointed by the government to oversee the evacuation process, visited Budomierz to take stock of the situation along with India’s Ambassador to Poland, Nagma Mallick.

Officials at the Indian Embassy in Warsaw (Poland) have identified a new entry point on Poland border for the Indian nationals stuck in western Ukraine.

The Embassy officials said that the Indian nationals, including students, stuck or staying in Lviv and Ternopil and other places in western Ukraine may travel at the earliest to the Budomierz border check-point for a relatively quick entry into Poland.

“Alternatively, they are advised to travel south to transit via Hungary or Romania,” the officials said.

They also advised the Indian nationals to avoid the Shehyni-Medyka border crossing, which continues to be congested.

The Indian Embassy has also deployed its officials in Medyka and Budomierz border check-points to receive all the evacuees and facilitate their travel to India.

Meanwhile, another speacial envoy of the government, Union minister Kiren Rijiju, has reached Kosice in Slovakia near the border with Ukraine to oversee the evacuation of stranded Indians.

India’s Ambassador to Slovakia, Vanlalhuma, and Pankaj Phukan, the first secretary in the Indian Embassy in Brussels, have also reached there to facilitate the evacuation mission under ‘Operation Ganga’.