Sumy: Evacuations begin in Ukraine war-zone to rescue the stranded

Indian and Chinese students have successfully been evacuated from a besieged town in Ukraine as a ceasefire was announced on Tuesday morning.

This comes after Ukrainian Deputy Prime Minister Iryna Vereshchuk announced that a humanitarian corridor to evacuate civilians, including foreign students, from Sumy to Poltava was agreed between Ukraine and Russia.

“It has been agreed that the first convoy will start at 8am GMT from the city of Sumy. The convoy will be followed by the local population in personal vehicles,” she said in a televised statement. It will last until 9pm tonight.

A convoy consisting of 12 buses was then seen leaving Sumy on Tuesday afternoon heading towards the city of Poltava, further south and away from the front lines.

The Government of India has since confirmed that all of its students have been evacuated from the war-zone; it’s understood that over 600 students were escorted by officials of the Indian Embassy and Red Cross volunteers.

“Happy to inform that we have been able to move out all Indian students from Sumy,” Arindam Bagchi, a spokesperson for Ministry of External Affairs in India, tweeted.

“They are currently en route to Poltava, from where they will board trains to western Ukraine. Flights under #OperationGanga are being prepared to bring them home.”

Students from China, which is an ally of Russia along with India, were reportedly among those evacuated too.

Some 8,000 Nigerian nationals, most of whom are students, remain stranded in Ukraine, along with people from South Africa, Zimbabwe, Somalia, Congo, Ireland and other countries.

African students have boarded vehicles with the expectation of being evacuated to safety too, The Independent has been told, but confirmation around numbers and the success of this endeavour is pending.

“Delighted and mightily relieved that the evacuation of our Nigerian students from Sumy has commenced. They are in our thoughts and prayers as they undertake the very long and hazardous trip to safety. In God we trust!,” Geoffrey Onyeama, Nigeria’s Foreign Affairs Minister, tweeted on Tuesday afternoon.

Shortly after this update, however, the Ukrainian Government said that Russia violated the ceasefire from south-eastern city of Mariupol.

“Ceasefire violated! Russian forces are now shelling the humanitarian corridor from Zaporizhzhia to Mariupol. 8 trucks + 30 buses ready to deliver humanitarian aid to Mariupol and to evac civilians to Zaporizhzhia. Pressure on Russia MUST step up to make it uphold its commitments,” Ukraine’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs tweeted.

open image in gallery

Civilians, many of whom are international students, have been trapped in Sumy as Russian troops continue to attack following the army’s invasion of Ukraine on February 24.

Moscow calls its actions in Ukraine a “special military operation.”

Other humanitarian corridors proposed by Russia on Monday would have allowed travel through Russia or its close ally Belarus, a “cynical” move that was swiftly rejected by Ukrainian authorities.

This comes as at least 21 people including two children were killed by Russian airstrikes in Sumy overnight, according to regional prosecutor’s office.

More follows.

The Independent has a proud history of campaigning for the rights of the most vulnerable, and we first ran our Refugees Welcome campaign during the war in Syria in 2015. Now, as we renew our campaign and launch this petition in the wake of the unfolding Ukrainian crisis, we are calling on the government to go further and faster to ensure help is delivered. To find out more about our Refugees Welcome campaign, click here. To sign the petition click here. If you would like to donate then please click here for our GoFundMe page.