Indian Students Kept As Hostages By Ukrainians In Kharkiv, Says Russia
NDTV
The Indian government had issued an urgent all-caps appeal to its citizens to immediately leave Ukraine's second-largest city Kharkiv.
Ukrainian forces are keeping a large group of Indian students as "hostages" in Kharkiv, the Russian Defence Ministry has alleged, amid an escalating assault on the country on Wednesday.
"According to our information, Ukrainian authorities are forcibly keeping a large group of Indian students in Kharkiv who wish to leave Ukrainian territory and go to Belgorod," a Russian military spokesperson said at a briefing.
"In fact, they are being held as hostages... Russian armed forces are ready to take all necessary measures for the safe evacuation of the Indian citizens. And send them home from the Russian territory with its own military transport planes or Indian planes, as the Indian side proposed to do," he added.
The startling claim by the Russians came not long after Prime Minister Narendra Modi spoke to Russian President Vladimir Putin and discussed the situation in the eastern Ukrainian city of Kharkiv, where over a thousand Indian students were said to be stranded.
