4 ministers to visit Ukraine's neighbours to arrange Indians' evacuation

Scindia to go to Romania, Rijiju to Slovakia for evacuation of Indians, Puri to Hungary

The government on Monday decided to send four Union ministers to the neighbouring countries of Ukraine to coordinate the evacuation process of Indians, including students, still stuck in the war-torn country.

The decision was taken at a high-level meeting chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

Union ministers Hardeep Puri, Jyotiraditya Scindia, Kiren Rijiju and V K Singh will be going as "special envoys" of India, government sources said.

Scindia will take care of evacuation efforts from Romania and Moldova while Rijiju will go to Slovakia.

The sources said that Puri will go to Hungary while Singh will be in Poland to manage the evacuation.

The decision to send these ministers came a day after Modi asserted that ensuring the safety of Indian students and evacuating them is the government's top priority.

Monday meeting was also attended by several ministers, including External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar and Commerce Minister Piyush Goyal, National Security Adviser Ajit Doval and Foreign Secretary Harsh Vardhan Shringla among other senior officials.

Modi had chaired a meeting on the Ukraine crisis on Sunday too.

It was decided at the meeting to further enhance cooperation with the neighbouring countries of Ukraine to expedite the evacuation of Indian students, sources had said.