PM Modi highlights Ukraine-returned Indian students in phone call with President Zelenskyy

New Delhi: In Prime Minister Narendra Modi's phone call with President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, Ukraine-returned Indian students found a mention as the PM urged Ukrainian authorities to facilitate arrangements for continued education of the students who returned due to the Ukraine-Russia war, which began in February 2022.

The reference to students comes as Minister Of State for External Affairs Meenakshi Lekhi informed the informed Lok Sabha that 1,100 Indian students are currently in Ukraine with most of them pursuing medical education. More than 22,500 Indian students were studying in Ukraine before the war.

The Indian Embassy in Kyiv had also issued an advisory for Indian nationals, mainly students on October 25 asking them to leave Ukraine by all available means due to the security situation in the East European country.

Lekhi had stated to the Lok Sabha that the NMC came up with a plan through a public notice dated July 28, 2022, under which Indian students who were enrolled in their final year of an undergraduate medical programme at a foreign institution but were forced to leave and who had earned a certificate of course completion from that institution by June 2022 would be allowed to take the Foreign Medical Graduate (FMG) examination.

Referring to the ongoing war in Ukraine unleashed by Russia, Zelenskyy said that during G20 he had initiated the peace formula and that he counts on India's participation in the implementation. Zelenskyy thanked PM Modi for the humanitarian aid and support in the UN.

"I had a phone call with PM Modi & wished a successful G20 presidency. It was on this platform that I announced the peace formula and now I count on India's participation in its implementation. I also thanked for humanitarian aid and support in the UN," Zelenskyy tweeted.