98% Pakistanis evacuated from Ukraine: embassy

TERNOPIL: Pakistan has almost completed the evacuation of its citizens stranded in Ukraine due to the Russian invasion, it emerged Friday.

Russian forces have yet to overthrow the government in Kyiv but thousands are reported to have died or been injured and more than a million people have fled Ukraine in the week since President Vladimir Putin ordered the biggest attack on a European state since 1945.

“The Embassy of Pakistan Ukraine has safely evacuated 98% of Pakistanis from Ukraine. Now only those few (around 30) Pakistanis are left in Ukraine who are stuck in areas of intense fight,” the mission said in an update on Twitter.

The statement added that the embassy has approached both Ukraine and Russia for opening up a humanitarian corridor that will enable it to evacuate the remaining Pakistanis.

Pakistan has shifted its operations from Kyiv after the Ukrainian capital came under heavy shelling and is providing all services from Ternopil.

There were nearly 3,000 Pakistanis in Ukraine when the war broke out last month.

'Distressed Indian students helped on humanitarian grounds'

On Thursday, Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi said that Pakistan helped “distressed” Indian students fleeing the Ukraine war on “humanitarian grounds”.

FM Qureshi had said he has spoken with the foreign ministers of Romania, Hungary, and Poland regarding the safe exit of Pakistani students from the war zone and they have assured Pakistan of their support in this regard.

“I talked with the Romanian foreign minister and sought an update from him on the latest situation of the conflict. Romania has a long 400-mile border with Ukraine and my discussion was focused on the assistance of our students fleeing war.”

The foreign minister had said that most Pakistani students have left the country.

“We are working hard to ensure their safe return and our embassies are playing a key role. You must have seen videos of our embassy [in Lviv] helping Indian students fleeing Ukraine where they were provided food,” FM Qureshi had added.

“They are kids in distress due to war and we helped them whatever was possible on a humanitarian basis.”