THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan held discussions with Union Minister of External Affairs S Jaishankar on Sunday regarding the rescue mission of Indians including Keralites trapped in war-torn Ukraine. The Chief Minister also wrote to Prime Minister Narendra Modi requesting urgent intervention from the Union government to provide relief to the Indian nationals there.
In his discussion with the external affairs minister, Pinarayi said that he was receiving numerous distress messages from the Malayali community stranded in Ukraine. Those taking refuge in bunkers in eastern Ukraine such as Kyiv, Kharkiv and Sumy were facing a shortage of food and water.
The union minister assured that all necessary facilities would be provided for the rescue mission and that the Centre would extend all possible assistance to those stranded. The chief minister also brought to the Foreign Minister’s notice complaints that Ukrainian officials were not allowing students who reached the border to cross over to Poland and that the Army was being used against them.
These students had walked all the way in the extreme cold to reach the Polish border. He also demanded that Ukrainian-speaking MEA officials be sent to the border as soon as possible to resolve the issue. The external affairs minister assured that the existing officials at the border would be able to do so. Pinarayi also demanded that a rescue mission should be carried out through Russia and Moldova. He also thanked the Union government for successfully carrying out rescue operations in the war-torn country.