While the Indian government has stepped up its efforts to evacuate Indians, mostly students, from Ukraine, opposition parties and left-liberals still think it is not enough. As airspace over Ukraine is close, Indians are being evacuated through the neighbouring countries, and already thousands have been airlifted from Hungary, Poland and Romania after the Indians crossed to these countries via land borders.
Opposition parties like Congress and Shiv Sena are spreading videos of Indians stuck in Ukraine to allege that the Indian govt is not doing anything to rescue them. They are also claiming that India was very late in issuing advisories asking Indians to leave the country before Russia invaded it, and claiming that other counties issued such advisories much earlier, and are doing a better job at evacuating their citizens from Ukraine.
All these claims made by opposition politicians and left-liberals are baseless and untrue and based on a poor understanding of the ground situation in Ukraine. In fact, the Indian govt has launched a massive operation named Operation Ganga to airlift Indians from Ukraine, which is not matched by any other country.
Indian officials are present at land borders of other countries with Ukraine to receive the students fleeing the country and are evacuating them to India. The entire cost of the travel is being borne by govt of India. Both civilian and military planes are being used. Even after the students are landing in India, several state governments are arranging their journeys to their hometowns, free of cost.
This is in stark contrast to what other governments are doing. Here are a few examples of how some of the major nations are treating their citizens stuck in the warzone.
The USA
The United States of America, which had issued multiple advisories before the invasion to its citizens in Ukraine to leave the country, has flat out refused to evacuate them now. In an advisory issued on February 25, the US Embassy in Ukraine had said that “the U.S. government will not be able to evacuate U.S. citizens from Ukraine”.
They had advised the US citizens to depart from Ukraine using any commercial or other privately available ground transportation options. The Biden administration has not even made any arrangement for evacuating its citizens who are crossing into neighbouring countries to the west, and they are expected to make all arrangements for accommodation and travel themselves.
The US Embassy in Ukraine has only issued an advisory on what the US citizens do and carry while crossing the borders, and have asked them to book hotels in advance. It is notable that before the war started, the US govt didn’t evacuate any American citizen, they had only issued advisories and the people were expected to make arrangements to leave the country themselves.
The UK
Even before the Russian attack on Ukraine had begun, the UK govt had said that British nationals who choose to stay in Ukraine should not expect a military evacuation if the invasion takes place. The British govt had asked its citizens to leave the country immediately, warning that there will be no evacuation if the war takes place.
“British nationals should leave Ukraine immediately by any means possible and they should not expect, as they saw in the summer with Afghanistan, that there would be any possibility of a military evacuation,” junior defence minister James Heappey had said.
In fact, the British govt has said that the invasion has severely affected its ability to provide consular assistance in Ukraine.
The UK has also shifted its embassy from Kyiv to Lviv, a city near the Polish border. This means British citizens stuck in the war zone has no physical access to consular services and any other help they can get from the embassy. This means, if any British citizen has non-British family members or dependents, they much reach the Poland border to get Visa.
Two days ago, the British Home Secretary made a statement to Parliament on the measures taken by the govt, and it only includes supporting British nationals and their non-British family members to get UK Visas. However, to submit such an application, people will have to travel to Lviv or visa application centres in Poland, Moldova, Romania, and Hungary.
There was no mention of any travel arrangements made by the British govt for its citizens like the Indian govt has done.
China
While other nations including India had issued advisories to their citizens in Ukraine, the Chinese govt had not even done that. On February 24, the Chinese govt had advised its citizens leaving Kyiv to display signs of identification such as the Chinese flag, but had retracted that later. On 26th they said that the Chinese citizens must refrain from displaying signs of identification.
The Chinese govt started evacuating its citizens only on Monday, as per reports by Chinese media. In the first batch, 600 Chinese citizens were evacuated through the Moldova border.
Pakistan
As opposed to the ‘developed’ nations mentioned above, the Pakistan govt has started to evacuate its citizens, although late. While earlier Pakistani citizens in Ukraine had complained that their govt is not helping them, the situation has changed in the last 3-4 days.
The Pakistan embassy is arranging accommodation facilities, and also providing transport facilities from Lviv to the borders. However, citizens have to reach Lviv on their own, as most countries are unable to provide transportation from Kyiv and other eastern cities due to the war.
According to the Pakistan govt, around 3000 Pakistani students were there in Ukraine, and now only 500-600 are left, and the rest have reached Pakistan or are in nearby countries like Poland and Romania.
However, due to the not-so-impressive reputation of Pakistan, some Pakistani citizens had used Indian flags on their vehicles to cross the check posts.
Other countries
Like the USA and UK, most other countries including Germany, France etc have asked their citizens to leave Ukraine, but have not made arrangements to evacuate them. The citizens are expected to make arrangements themselves to cross the border and then travel onward.
While Germany had evacuated its spy chief who was in Ukraine when the Russian invasion began, no such arrangements were made for the citizens. Federal Intelligence Service (BND) chief Bruno Kahl was in Ukraine for “urgent talks”, but as Russia had started the attack and the airspace was closed, he had taken the land route to leave the country.
These examples of other countries show that India is only the major country airlifting its citizens free of cost from the war-hit Ukraine. Most other countries have not made any such arrangements, and only asked their citizens to evacuate on their own.
The Indian effort
What the Indian govt is doing now after the Russian invasion of Ukraine is much more than what most major nations have done. Immediately after air services with Ukraine were suspended due to the war, India started arrangements for evacuating Indians through neighbouring countries of Poland, Hungary, Romania, Slovakia and Moldova.
Indian embassies in those countries had set up offices at the land borders with Ukraine to receive the Indians and facilitate their onward journey to India. Govt of India has even sent cabinet ministers to those countries to oversee Operation Ganga. Aircraft of civilian airlines like Air India, Indigo, SpiceJet, and military transport planes of the Indian Air Force are being used in this massive operation, and all the costs are being borne by the govt.
So far, the Indian govt has evacuated over 6000 students from Ukraine via its neighbouring countries.
On the matter of rescuing Indians from Eastern Ukraine including capital Kyiv, it must be remembered that the entire easter part of the country is being attacked by Russian forces. Russia is bombing the cities in that part of Ukraine, mainly targeting military establishments which also have caused a substantial collateral damage.
Therefore, it has become very difficult to transport Indian students from eastern Ukraine to the borders on the west, through which they are being evacuated. It is literally a war-zone, everything included transport facilities are either down, or whatever facilities are running are being overwhelmed with number of people trying to flee the zone.
Given this scenario, students stuck in that part of Ukraine will face difficulties, and Modi government can’t be held responsible for that. And even Poland can’t be held responsible for the difficulties students are facing inside Ukraine, as one honourable member of parliament in India thinks.
