Pakistan embassy in Ukraine overseeing safe evacuation of students, families

Islamabad: Pakistan Embassy in Ukraine has safely evacuated a large number of stranded Pakistani students and Pakistani nationals despite the difficult situation there, in the aftermath of Russian forces’ attacks on different key cities.

Pakistan ambassador to Ukraine Dr Noel Israel Khokhar, in a voice message on his Twitter handle, said that there were about 3,000 students in Ukraine and the bulk of which had been safely evacuated.

He said some 500-600 were left and the embassy was in the process to safely evacuate them.

The ambassador said that they were making hectic efforts despite ordeals and difficulties in Ukraine.

“All Pakistanis are safe and we are trying to guide them under the difficult situation,” Khokhar said, citing closure of flights, banking systems and non-availability of transport and fuel.

Despite all these difficulties, he said they had evacuated bulk of the students and would be able to evacuate the remaining few ones. They maintained close contacts with the students, he added.

According to details, the Embassy of Pakistan in Ukraine had received 23 more Pakistani students at Lviv facilitation desk, arriving from different cities of Ukraine including Kyiv. They were set to be transferred to the Polish border through transportation arranged by the embassy.

The embassy had managed to evacuate 70 students from Kharkiv city which is one of the main battlegrounds between Ukrainian and Russian forces. They will be received today at around 11 am by the embassy facilitation desk at Lviv railway station.

The embassy was also evacuating 12 family members of the embassy staff. They were now being transported to the Ukraine-Romania border and the embassy of Pakistan in Romania was providing all facilitation on their side of the border, it was added.