Just ahead of Prime Minister Narendra Modi's historic first visit to Kyiv, V. Muraleedharan, the former Minister of State for External Affairs, on Friday recalled the Indian PM's "decisive leadership during the 2022 evacuation of Indian students from war-torn areas of Ukraine.
In an interview given to Modi Story, Muraleedharan remembered that "elections in Uttar Pradesh were underway" when the conflict between Russia and Ukraine began in February 2022.
The Prime Minister had political programmes but had to take time from his busy schedule to address the crisis; he had two meetings and another one when he returned from the campaign trail. During the day, he was out on the campaign, and late evenings, there were late meetings when there was time, and all the time when he was free he was leading from the front to solve the problems," explained a former Minister.
"An outstanding example of his leadership was in negotiating himself to ensure safe passage for students, who travelled over 18 hours [through] the conflict zone to reach the border," he added.
Of the hundreds, many Indian students were stuck in Kharkiv when the full-fledged military offensive opened up in the region in the last stages of the evacuation exercise.
"Taking them out was not possible as the roads were damaged. The nearest border was the eastern border of Russia, but it was a problem to take them to the Russian border. The borders were waiting for our mission officials. It it was necessary to take them to the western border, it would have taken 18-20 hours journey.". "We felt that that was going to be a big problem, but the PM has not lost hope; he argued and discussed with the Russians," says he.
He also informed that when Russia stopped shelling for a few hours, an officer from the ministry traveled to the war-torn and 8-9 buses took a large group of students out of the country. They reached the eastern border of the country after 18-20 hours of a tiring journey by the bus.
"We were not expecting that. We thought that the PM will find a way to bring them to the western border."
The tense stand-off between Russia and Ukraine finally reached a new level of conflict on February 24, 2022.
This included Indians in the heavily shelled areas of Kharkiv and Sumy.
External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar is quoted as saying while addressing the parliament in March 2022 that the evacuation of the Indians finally takes place because of PM Modi's "personal intervention" with the Presidents of Ukraine and Russia.
Operation Ganga was the most difficult evacuation exercise in an ongoing conflict situation. It involved logistics on a massive scale at a time when military activities involving air strikes and shelling were taking place. It was an evacuation, thereby involving movement in a war-torn situation across the length of a large country: at times over 1,000 km. Furthermore, there was a challenge of how to exit border check-points that were clogged by an estimated 26-lakh refugees.
PM Modi will reach Kyiv on Friday, following which he will hold discussions with President Volodymyr Zelensky, including on the ongoing conflict.
New Delhi has been continuously pitching for a peaceful solution to the Russia-Ukraine conflict through dialogue and diplomacy. On June 14, PM Modi had met Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on the sidelines of the 50th G7 Summit in Italy's Apulia, where he termed the discussions as "very productive."
At the meeting, he reiterated that India would certainly do everything within its means to support a peaceful solution towards a resolution of the conflict,.
"Had a very productive meeting with President Volodymyr Zelensky. India is eager to further cement bilateral relations with Ukraine. Reiterated that India certainly believes in a human-centric approach to bring peace to the ongoing hostilities and is confident that peace can line a way through dialogue and diplomacy," PM Modi posted on X after meeting Zelensky.
Zelensky has already called PM Modi and congratulated him for his victory in the elections, expressing his hope that the Indian PM will soon visit Ukraine.
The Ukrainian President had posted on this [X], "The entire world views the role of India with great significance and weight in international affairs. It is important that all work together to ensure just peace for all nations," before calling PM Modi, who returned to power after the results of the elections held recently to the Lok Sabha were announced.
Ever since the beef began between Russia and Ukraine, India has taken a consistent position that tries to act as a bridge between both the antagonists for a solution through diplomacy and dialogue.
At the same time, New Delhi has sent a large consignment of humanitarian assistance to Kyiv with millions of units of the essential medicines and medical equipment.
