PM Modi calls another meeting on Ukraine situation, evacuation efforts

Prime Minister Narendra Modi called another high-level meeting on Saturday evening to discuss the situation in war-hit Ukraine and India's evacuation efforts to bring back its citizens, sources said

Prime Minister Narendra Modi called another high-level meeting on Saturday evening to discuss the situation in war-hit Ukraine and India's evacuation efforts to bring back its citizens, official sources said.

Since Sunday, Modi has chaired a number of such meetings, as his government works to bring back Indian students who have been scrambling to leave Ukraine after Russia launched an attack on it.

External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar and his cabinet colleague Piyush Goyal were part of the meeting chaired by Modi, besides several top bureaucrats.

India has launched "Operation Ganga" to evacuate its nationals and sent four Union ministers as the prime minister's special envoys to Ukraine's neighbours to coordinate the exercise.

India on Saturday said its main focus now is on the evacuation of around 700 Indian students stranded in the eastern Ukrainian city of Sumy which has been witnessing bombings and airstrikes.

At a media briefing, External Affairs Ministry spokesperson Arindam Bagchi said India hopes to evacuate its citizens from Kharkiv and Pisochyn in the next few hours.

"Our main focus is now on evacuating Indian students from Sumy. We are exploring multiple options for their evacuation," he said.

Russia launched the military offensive against Ukraine on February 24.