After Russia attacked Ukraine and launched a military operation on February 24, India launched a massive operation to bring back its stranded citizens from the war-hit country. Even during such testing times, the usual gang of leftists and their friendly media portals are not abstaining from peddling fake news to undermine the Modi government’s efforts to arrange for a secure corridor to evacuate its stranded students in Ukraine.
Many leftist news portals like The Quint have published reports that the Ministry of External Affairs has denied claims that Russia halted the war for six hours on Wednesday, March 2, to facilitate the evacuation of Indians from Kharkiv at the Indian government’s request.
Assamese news channel Pratitin Times also published a similar report claiming that the MEA has clarified that Russia did not stop war for 6 hours to evacuate Indians from Kharkiv.
A journalist working with The Hindu also took to her official Twitter handle to make similar claims. Suhasini Haider Tweeted on March 3, 2022, “MEA denies reports that Russia “stopped the war for 6 hours” in order to facilitate Indians escaping Kharkiv, adds that they received inputs from Russia that prompted them to tell citizens to leave the city and choose certain routes, no “coordination” on Russian missile strikes.
MEA denies reports that Russia “stopped the war for 6 hours” in order to facilitate Indians escaping Kharkiv, adds that they received inputs from Russia that prompted them to tell citizens to leave the city and choose certain routes, no “coordination” on Russian missile strikes.
— Suhasini Haidar (@suhasinih) March 3, 2022
Another Twitter user wrote that it was Defence Analyst “Nitin Gokhale who spread the news of India stopping the Ukraine-Russia war for 6 hours, to Evacuate Indian Students.” She added that the MEA had clarified that it was fake news.
This is Nitin Gokhale who spread the news of India stopping the Ukraine-Russia war for 6 hours, to Evacuate Indian Students.
— GeetV (@geetv79) March 4, 2022
Today MEA clarified that It was Fake News👇#BesharamPracharMantri puts out fake news to boost his sorry image.
pic.twitter.com/SPCT8xzEvU
Following these Tweets and media reports, Defence Analyst Nitin Gokhale took to Twitter to share a snippet of a press statement issued by the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) spokesperson Arindam Bagchi to refute the unverified claims made by the likes of journalist Suhasini Haider and the ultra-leftist media portal The Quint.
Replying to the journalist, Nitin Gokhale Tweeted, “No outright denial! ‘What was stopped, what was not stopped, I am not getting into that. We have been pressing all sides, Russian, Ukraine for safe passage. We had some indication of way out from South East Kharkiv,’ says MEA. Listen to the clip; make your own conclusions”.
😀😀 No outright denial! ‘What was stopped, what was not stopped, I am not getting into that. We have been pressing all sides, Russian, Ukraine for safe passage. We had some indication of way out from South East Kharkiv,’ says MEA. Listen to the clip; make your own conclusions https://t.co/aSyPQQaQrV pic.twitter.com/X3WKe22ew2
— Nitin A. Gokhale (@nitingokhale) March 3, 2022
As rightly pointed out by the defence analyst, MEA, in its press release, neither agrees nor disagrees that Russia gave India a window of 6 hours to safely evacuate its stranded citizens on Wednesday. MEA spokesperson Arindam Bagchi can clearly be heard saying that “What was stopped, what was not stopped, I am not getting into that”.
If not agree, Bagchi, at no point in time, outrightly denied that there was no coordination between India and Russia on the evacuation of Indian students, as claimed by many.
It must be understood that Russia wont like to disclose any detail of any pause in the attack they did to help evacuate Indians. They are in the middle of invading Ukraine, and obviously they don’t want to reveal any operational details of their movements. As a reason of that, govt of India is not revealing officially the window provided to India to evacuated Indians from Ukraine.
Indian Embassy in Ukraine asks Indians to leave Kharkiv immediately, Russia giving safe passage at request of govt of India
It may be recalled that on March 2, it was reported that the Indian Embassy in Ukraine had asked the Indians to leave the Kharkiv city immediately and provided a list of three settlements where they must reach by 6 PM Ukrainian time.
In the tweet, the Embassy wrote, “Urgent advisory to all Indian nationals in Kharkiv. For their safety and security, they must leave Kharkiv immediately. Proceed to Pesochin, Babaye and Bezlyudovka as soon as possible. Under all circumstances, they must reach these settlements *by 1800 hrs (Ukrainian time) today*.” They wrote the advisory in all capital letters, implying how urgent it is.
Around half an hour after posting the advisory on Twitter, the embassy posted another embassy, again in all capital letters. In the second advisory, the Indian Embassy said that for their own security and safety, Indians in Kharkiv must leave the city immediately. “FOR THEIR OWN SAFETY AND SECURITY THEY MUST LEAVE KHARKIV IMMEDIATELY REPEAT IMMEDIATELY IN THE LIGHT OF THE DETERIORATING SITUATION”, wrote the embassy, repeating the word “Immediately”.
Given the urgent nature of the advisory, it seemed the Indian govt had learnt from reliable sources that a major invasion at Kharkiv was going to take place that night.
Notably, on the same day, Denis Alipov, Russian envoy designated to Delhi had said that the Russian authorities were in touch we the Indian government to provide safe passage to the Indian nationals stuck in Kharkiv. “We have received the Indian request for the emergency evacuation of all those stuck there via Russian territory. We are actively working to provide a humanitarian corridor so that people have safe passage,” he said.
A number of news outlets and Twitter users had then claimed that the war had been stopped temporarily at PM Modi’s insistence, and said that the incident showcased the “power of Indian diplomacy”. The plaudits bestowed on the Indian government did not, obviously, sit well with the leftist cabal, who rallied together to declare that the news that Russia halted the war for 6 hours as a goodwill gesture, was a complete fabrication.
