Forty Indian students - out of over 15,000 still in the war-hit Ukraine - have managed to walk to the Ukraine-Poland border after they were dropped off by their college bus some 8 km from the border,  Indian media reports said.  India's Ministry of External Affairs (MEA)( has sent more Russian-speaking officials to these camp offices to help Indian students who are going to Poland. Another group of students have also left for the Ukraine-Romania border, ANI news agency said, desperate to get out of a country besieged with uncertainty. 

The students of a medical college in Lviv, 70 km from the border with Poland, are waiting to be evacuated from Ukraine's neighbouring countries as the Ukrainian airspace has been shut amid the Russian invasion, whose forces have reached Ukraine. 

More than 470 Indian students will be evacuated from Ukraine via Romania, the government announced as calls for rescuing the thousands of stranded Indians in the war-torn country grew increasingly desperate. Many students have shared frantic posts on social media from shelters like underground metro stations and basements amid bombings and missile attacks by Russian forces.

The Indian government said it is organising evacuation flights for Indians who have managed to reach Ukraine's neighbours, and said the cost will be completely borne by the government. Two chartered flights will bring back the students from Bucharest, the Romanian capital, and one flight from Budapest, the Hungarian capital Sunday.

Indian nationals who have reached the Ukraine-Romania border by road will be taken to Bucharest by Indian government officials so that they can be evacuated in the two Air India flights, they added.

The embassy advised Indian travellers to carry their passports, cash (preferably in US dollars), other essential items and COVID-19 vaccination certificates to the border checkpoints. "Print out Indian flag and paste prominently on vehicles and buses while travelling," it said.

The distance between Kyiv and the Romanian border checkpoint is approximately 600 km and it takes anywhere between eight-and-a-half to 11 hours to cover it by road. Bucharest is located approximately 500 km from the Romanian border checkpoint and it takes anywhere between seven to nine hours to cover the distance by road.

The distance between Kyiv and the Hungarian border checkpoint is around 820 km and it takes 12-13 hours to cover it by road.

(SAM)