As Russia's military claims air superiority over Ukraine, Indians advised to move to railway station

New Delhi, Feb 28: The Indian embassy in Ukraine on Monday advised all Indian students stranded in Kyiv to reach the railway station in the Ukrainian capital for their onward journey to the western parts of the war-torn country. It said the weekend curfew in Kyiv has been lifted and they can go to the railway station to get out of the city.

"Weekend curfew lifted in Kyiv. All students are advised to make their way to the railway station for onward journey to the western parts.Ukraine Railways is putting special trains for evacuations," the embassy tweeted.

Foreign Secretary Harsh Vardhan Shringla on Sunday said the main concern for India is ensuring the safety of its nationals stuck in areas witnessing intense fighting including in Kyiv that has around 2,000 Indians.

India has already evacuated over 2,000 of its citizens from Ukraine and more than 1,000 of them have been brought back home on chartered flights from Hungary and Romania.

The areas in the east of Ukraine including Kharkiv and Sumy are the conflict zones and India has been focusing on taking out its citizens from these areas to the country's western region for their subsequent evacuation through border crossings to Hungary, Romania, Poland and Slovakia.

"The Ministry of External Affairs, under the direct supervision of the External Affairs Minister, and the overall guidance of the prime minister is doing everything possible to make sure that the safety, security and the interests of our citizens in Ukraine are given the highest priority," Shringla said.

India on Friday managed to set up camp offices in Lviv and Chernivtsi towns in western Ukraine to facilitate the transit of Indians to Hungary, Romania and Poland.

India also positioned teams of officials at Zahony border post in Hungary, Krakowiec as well as Shehyni-Medyka land border points in Poland, Vysne Nemecke in the Slovak Republic and Suceava transit point in Romania to coordinate the exit of Indian nationals from Ukraine.

India is using the land routes to evacuate its citizens as Ukraine has closed its airspace for civilian aircraft following the Russian attack.

Meanwhile, Stepping up its efforts to evacuate Indian students stranded in war-hit Ukraine, the Centre on Monday decided that Union ministers Hardeep Puri, Jyotiraditya Scindia, Kiren Rijiju and V K Singh will travel to its neighbouring countries to coordinate the evacuation mission and help students, government sources said. These ministers will be going there as "special envoys" of India, they said.

Scindia will take care of evacuation efforts from Romania and Moldova while Rijiju will go to Slovakia. The sources said that Puri will go to Hungary while Singh will be in Poland to manage the evacuation.

The decision was taken at a high-level meeting chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

Several ministers, including External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar and Commerce Minister Piyush Goyal, also attended the meeting. Modi had chaired a meeting on the Ukraine crisis on Sunday too and had asserted that ensuring the safety of Indian students and evacuating them is the government's top priority.

It was also decided at the meeting to further enhance cooperation with the neighbouring countries of Ukraine to expedite the evacuation of Indian students, sources had said.