Hundreds of Pakistani students await evacuation as Russian forces pound Ukraine for third day

This photo shows a group of Pakistani students seated in a bus before being evacuated from Ukraine after Russian invasion on Feb 26, 2022. (Photo courtesy: Pakistan's Foreign Ministry)

• UN says at least 100,000 people had been uprooted in Ukraine after fleeing their homes 
• Several thousand had crossed into neighboring countries including Moldova, Romania and Poland 

ISLAMABAD: More than 600 Pakistani students remain stranded in Ukraine in the wake of the Russian invasion of the Eastern European nation, the Pakistani embassy said on Saturday, with evacuations continuing through Ukraine’s borders with Poland and Romania.
The development came as Russian forces pounded Ukrainian cities, including the capital Kyiv, with artillery and cruise missiles for a third day running and Russia’s Interfax news agency said they had captured the southeastern city of Melitopol.
A UN refugee agency spokesperson told a briefing in Geneva that at least 100,000 people had been uprooted in Ukraine after fleeing their homes, while several thousand have already crossed into neighboring countries including Moldova, Romania and Poland.
“[Pakistani] Community 4000, mostly married to Ukrainians, have already left Ukraine on advice of the Mission,” the Pakistani embassy said in a statement.
“Students 3000 – Majority of the students have already left on advice of the Embassy and remaining 600 are being evacuated.”
Of the 3,000 Pakistani students, it said, 625 were currently present in the Ukrainian cities of Kharkiv, Poltava, Kyiv, Vinnytsia and Summy.
“The students still in Ukraine are the ones who did not leave despite repeated advices,” the embassy said in a statement.
The mission had been providing accommodation to students in Ternopil and transportation wherever possible, especially from Lviv to border crossings, it said.
Meanwhile, evacuations of Pakistanis from Ukraine continued on Saturday, with the Pakistani ministry of foreign affairs saying 62 people had already been evacuated while hundreds of others were being transported out through the country’s borders with Poland and Romania.
“The current updates from the Embassy of Pakistan Ukraine are: 62 people including 21 family members of Embassy staff already evacuated, 59 people are on the border crossing (Ukraine-Poland border),” the foreign office said in a statement.
“79 people were on the way to borders now (67 students toward Ukraine-Poland border and 12 family members of Embassy staff toward Ukraine-Romania border),” the statement said, adding that 104 students were on their way to Kyiv via train from Kharkiv and 20 were traveling on a bus arranged by the embassy.
Pakistan’s embassy in Poland said on Friday the Polish government had allowed Pakistani citizens stranded in Ukraine to travel to the country by land within 15 days. Coronavirus restrictions, showing proof of vaccination and quarantine protocols were suspended from Friday, it said.
Pakistan’s foreign minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi said on Friday around 3,000 Pakistanis were stranded in Ukraine. Pakistan’s embassy had initially asked them to gather in the Ukrainian city of Ternopil, close to Poland’s border, from where they would be evacuated.
In an audio message shared on Twitter, Pakistan’s Ambassador to Ukraine Dr. Noel Israel Khokhar said a majority of students had been evacuated from Ukraine and the embassy would ensure the rest were also safely evacuated.
He said the embassy was in close contact with Pakistani students despite difficulties as Ukraine’s banking system had gone down, the country’s airspace had been closed and fuel was running short across the country.