We can’t abandon our own people: Rahul Gandhi on Indian students stranded in Ukraine

New Delhi, Feb 28: As thousands of Indians stuck in Ukraine in the midst of the worst crisis in Europe in decades, Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Monday asked the government to urgently share its evacuation plan with those stranded in Ukraine and their families as he shared a video of some students being harassed by the military there.

"My heart goes out to the Indian students suffering such violence and their family watching these videos. No parent should go through this," he said on Twitter while sharing the video of some students.

"The GOI must urgently share the detailed evacuation plan with those stranded as well as their families. We can't abandon our own people," Gandhi also said.

Gandhi and the Congress party have been criticising the government for not evacuating Indian students in time from Ukraine and have called for urgent steps to evacuate them, after Russia attacked Ukraine. A number of Congress leaders have shared videos of Indian students in Ukraine highlighting their plight and making appeals to the Indian government to evacuate them soon.

Meanwhile, PM Modi has decided to rush Union Ministers Hardeep Puri, Jyotiraditya Scindia, Kiren Rijiju and Gen. V K Singh to neighbouring countries of Ukraine to coordinate the evacuation mission and help students. These Ministers will be going as Special Envoys of India.

As many as 688 Indian nationals returned here on Sunday from strife-torn Ukraine on board three Air India evacuation flights from Romanian capital Bucharest and Hungarian capital Budapest.

Civil Aviation Minister Jyotiraditya Scindia said that approximately 13,000 Indians are stranded in Ukraine as of now, and the government is making efforts to bring them back as soon as possible.