India appeals for ceasefire in Ukraine as hundreds of its students remain stranded

India urged Ukraine and Russia on Friday to impose a ceasefire in the northeastern Ukrainian city of Sumy to help evacuate hundreds of Indian students trapped there amid worsening conflict.

Around 700 Indian students have been unable to leave Sumy, where an oil depot was reportedly bombed, railway tracks have been destroyed, and there has been fighting in the streets, according to the students.

That has hampered the students' evacuation, Indian Foreign Ministry spokesman Arindam Bagchi told reporters.

"We want a safe route for our students," Bagchi said, "We are looking at all options."

Russia and Ukraine agreed on Thursday to the need for humanitarian corridors to help civilians escape Moscow's eight-day-old invasion.

A group of around 1,000 students who had fled northeastern Ukraine's Kharkiv, where one Indian medical student was killed this week, were being moved by bus toward the country's western borders, Bagchi said.

Several hundred Indian students still remained in the heavily bombed city, he said.

Before the conflict flared, Indians made up around a quarter of the 76,000 foreign students in Ukraine, the largest number from any overseas country.

The Indian government says about 17,000 out of an estimated 20,000 Indian citizens in Ukraine have left the country and that India is trying to evacuate the rest to nearby countries from where they can be flown back home. 

Another 16 evacuation flights are scheduled in the next 24 hours, Bagchi said Friday.

Social media pleas for help

In Sumy, Indian student Abrar Sheikh has been waking up to the loud thuds of bombs that have been pummeling the city in northeastern Ukraine 50 kilometres from the Russian border. When he hears the sounds of shelling, he rushes to a nearby bunker, praying the bombs don't find him.

Earlier this week, the blare of the bombs became louder. The food inside the bunker got scarcer and the cries of children inside grew.

"At that moment, all I could think of was my family," Sheikh, 22, told The Associated Press by cellphone from the underground bunker on Wednesday, his voice thick with fear.

"Sometimes, the bunker goes all silent after we hear the sound of the bombs, and I think, 'Is this it?' At night, we pull the curtains in our rooms to keep them dark, hoping Russian troops don't know we are inside."

Stranded Indian students have been appealing for help on social media. In one video, a crying student begged the Indian government for assistance. Another showed dozens of students walking toward crowded borders where they waited for hours before being allowed into neighbouring countries.

Hundreds of kilometres from safety of western Ukraine

Sheikh, a medical student at Sumy State University, has been trying to leave the city for several days. But shelling by Russian forces has left him and about 500 other Indian students in the city trapped. 

They are hundreds of kilometres and at least 10 hours away from Ukraine's western border, considered to be safer, where Indian officials have so far focused their evacuation efforts.

Evacuation flights have taken off from countries bordering western Ukraine, such as Poland, Slovakia, Hungary and Romania, with more scheduled. A group of Indian cabinet ministers has flown to these countries to help with rescue efforts.

But for those stuck in the eastern region, there appears no safe way out yet. India has sent a team from its embassy in Moscow to Belgorod, a Russian city close to the border with Ukraine, Indian Foreign Secretary Harsh Vardhan Shringla said earlier this week.

"This team is in place and ready to see whatever we can do to extract our students and citizens from the Kharkiv and Sumy area," he told the AP.

India had asked all its citizens to leave Kharkiv after receiving information from Russia, External Affairs Ministry spokesman Arindam Bagchi said. They were advised to move to three safe zones about 15 kilometres away using any means, including on foot, he said. Bagchi did not describe the information provided by Russia.

"We cannot leave. We have no way of getting to the western part. There is no train or bus or any transport to take us there," said Chandra Reddy, 22, another medical student at Sumy State University, in an interview with the AP.

Reddy said he was in touch with Indian authorities, who urged him to stay put for now.

He said he risked his life on Tuesday to go to a nearby grocery store, leaving the bunker where he has spent most of his time over the last six days. He quickly bought packets of rice, vegetables and fruit — enough to last a few days — before rushing back.

On the same day, Indian student Naveen Shekarappa Gyanagoudar was killed in Kharkiv when he left his bunker to go buy food.

"When I heard that, it hit me that I had just done the same thing, that this can be me next," Reddy said.

India abstained from UN votes against Russia

The state-run universities are popular with Indian students for their high-quality education at affordable prices, and as an alternative to India's overcrowded and competitive public universities.

Following the invasion last week, a number of Western and Asian countries slapped sanctions on Russia, but India sought to appear neutral. It has refrained from criticizing Russia or directly acknowledging Ukraine's sovereignty, instead pushing for diplomacy and dialogue.

On Wednesday, it abstained from voting on a UN General Assembly resolution demanding an immediate halt to Moscow's attack on Ukraine. Similarly, it abstained from voting on a UN Security Council resolution last week.

Experts said the decision didn't signal support for Moscow but reflected India's historic partnership with Russia, a Cold War ally it continues to rely on for energy, weapons and support in conflicts with neighbours.