SIX DAYS into Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, India’s worst fears came true when a 21-year-old Indian medical student in the eastern Ukrainian city of Kharkiv near the Russian border was killed on Tuesday, marking the country’s first casualty in the war.
Indian officials identified the victim as Naveen S G, a fourth-year MBBS student at Kharkiv National Medical University who hailed from Chalageri village in Karnataka’s Haveri district.
They said he was killed in shelling. But a former hostel mate of Naveen in Kharkiv cited other members of the student community there as saying that he was hit in firing by the Russian army outside a grocery store.
Meanwhile, Foreign Secretary Harsh Vardhan Shringla said that all Indian nationals in Ukraine’s capital Kyiv have been evacuated.
The Indian Express has learnt that the Government is now looking at shutting the Indian Embassy in Kyiv and moving its officials to a recently established office in Lviv, about 70 km from the Polish border, to facilitate evacuation efforts.
With profound sorrow we confirm that an Indian student lost his life in shelling in Kharkiv this morning. The Ministry is in touch with his family.
— Arindam Bagchi (@MEAIndia) March 1, 2022
We convey our deepest condolences to the family.
Some Embassy officials have already been moved to the new office, it is learnt. If the security situation in the capital deteriorates, the Embassy, which is located near the Presidential palace and other key buildings in Kyiv, will be fully vacated.
Earlier, Ministry of External Affairs spokesperson Arindam Bagchi confirmed the student’s death. “With profound sorrow we confirm that an Indian student lost his life in shelling in Kharkiv this morning. The Ministry is in touch with his family. We convey our deepest condolences to the family,” he posted on Twitter.
Addressing a late-evening press conference, Foreign Secretary Shringla said the circumstances in which Naveen was hit was “not absolutely clear”. He said the body has been sent to a university morgue and the Government is making efforts to bring it back in coordination with local authorities.