PM interacts with students who returned from Ukraine

Varanasi, Mar 3: Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Thursday interacted with a group of students who have returned from war-hit Ukraine and hail from various parts of Uttar Pradesh, official sources said.

The students shared their experiences with Modi, who is on a tour to the state as part of the BJP's campaign for the assembly polls. The Prime Minister represents Varanasi constituency in Lok Sabha. The government has launched "Operation Ganga" to evacuate Indian citizens, mostly students, from Ukraine which has been attacked by Russia.

The government has already sent four Union ministers to countries neighbouring Ukraine as India's "special envoys" to coordinate the evacuation efforts.

Meanwhile, the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) on Thursday said the pace of India's evacuation operation from Ukraine is accelerating and about 1,000 Indians have left Kharkiv to nearby Pisochyn pursuant to its advisory a day ago.

MEA spokesperson Arindam Bagchi said at a media briefing that the Indian side is in touch with both Ukrainian and Russian authorities to examine the modalities of how Indians can be evacuated from both Kharkiv and Sumy. "We are closely following the developments in Kharkiv, Sumy and other cities in eastern Ukraine. As you know yesterday we issued an advisory for Indians in Kharkiv to leave the city by 6PM local time. Pursuant to this a large number of students have left Kharkiv and are currently in the nearby issue of Pisochyn. We estimate this number to be around 1,000," he said. PTI