Narendra Modi to rush 4 ministers to Ukraine's neighbours

New Delhi: Prime Minister Narendra Modi, after a third high-level meeting on the Ukraine crisis on Monday, decided to despatch four Ministers to countries bordering Ukraine to help better coordinate the evacuation of Indian nationals from the war-torn country. Jyotiraditya Scindia will travel to Romania and Moldova, Kiren Rijiju to Slovakia, Hardeep Singh Puri to Hungary and Gen. V. K. Singh (retd.) to Poland.

While the Ministry of External Affairs has been running helplines and officials are posted at border checkpoints at Poland, Hungary, Slovakia, Romania and Moldova, the rush at these checkpoints, especially on the Poland-Ukraine border, has seen clashes there and a wait of two to three days in freezing temperatures before making a crossing. On Sunday evening, the Government of India announced that they had started a bus service to take Indian nationals through the checkpoints.

Sources in the government said that while private airlines such as Indigo and SpiceJet had also announced evacuation flights, the presence of Ministers may help ease some of the paperwork required to complete the process.

Political leaders across the board have written to Mr. Modi or have raised the issue of evacuation of Indian nationals from all over the country. Cabinet Secretary Rajiv Gauba spoke to the Chief Secretaries of various States and asked District Collectors to contact family members of Indian nationals in Ukraine informed about the arrangements being made for evacuation.