New Delhi: Prime Minister Narendra Modi has spoken with Russian President Vladimir Putin, appealing for an immediate end to violence in Ukraine, as well as concerted efforts from all sides to return to diplomatic negotiations, a statement issued by his office Thursday night said. President Putin also briefed the prime minister on the situation in Ukraine.
PM Modi reiterated his conviction that the differences between Russia and the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) could only be resolved by dialogue, the statement said.
The statement came even as Russian forces pushed deeper into Ukraine, leading to intense fighting in the cities of Kharkiv and Sumy, while helicopter-borne troops were reported to have seized the Antonov International Airport, just a few kilometres from the country’s capital, Kyiv.
Fighting was also reported along Ukraine’s border with Belarus, where Russian troops were said to have pushed through the Chernobyl nuclear reactor’s exclusion zone, a depopulated area set up after an infamous 1986 accident.
At least 57 Ukranians had been killed in the first hours of the Russian offensive, Ukraine’s Health Minister Viktor Lyashko said, while one independent news website reported “dozens” of civilian casualties in air and missile strikes, as well as artillery shelling.
Graphic footage on local social media showed Kyiv residents taking refuge in the city’s underground metro station, where four stops were converted into bomb-shelters.
European and United States authorities have announced wide-ranging punitive measures against Russia, with President Joe Biden announcing sanctions on Gazprom, the state-owned giant which among other things is building a gas pipeline to Germany. Further measures, US officials have said, are expected.
The United Kingdom has also announced sanctions and asset-seizures targeting Russian defence companies, banks and individuals considered close to President Putin. Ahead of a European Union-wide sanctions plan — which could include cutting off Russia’s access to the international banking system — several European countries have announced they will stop issuing visas to Russian nationals, and recalled their ambassadors in Moscow for consultations.
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Concern for trapped Indian nationals
In his phone call, PM Modi underlined the country’s concern over the estimated 15,000-plus Indian nationals trapped in Ukraine, many of them students. India Thursday dispatched diplomatic personnel from its embassy in Hungary to assist its nationals to leave Ukraine.
A flight dispatched from India to evacuate the country’s nationals from Kyiv had to return half-way Thursday, after Ukraine closed its airspace in response to Russian air and missile strikes.
(Edited by Shreyas Sharma)
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