The government in New Delhi is working to fly out thousands of Indian students caught unawares by the war in Ukraine.

After an Indian medical student was killed in an artillery attack in the city of Kharkiv on Tuesday, New Delhi has stepped up rescue flights for refugee Indian students from Hungary, Romania and Poland.

According to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, 17,000 of around 20,000 Indian students have left the country, and more than 3,000 were flown to India as part of "Operation Ganges".

"My experiences were so terrible that I can't even put them into words, the bombs fell everywhere," reports 21-year-old medical student Pooja Yadav to the FAZ by telephone from her hometown of Lucknow, where she is now after being flown out .

Till Fähnders

Political correspondent for Southeast Asia.

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The safety of Indian students was also the main issue in a phone call between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Russian President Vladimir Putin late Wednesday evening.

A statement from the Indian government said the two had discussed the safe transfer of Indian students from the conflict zones.

India and Russia are linked by an old friendship.

During the Cold War, India had oriented itself towards the Soviet Union, while arch-enemy Pakistan was moving towards the West at the time.

India is the second largest arms importer in the world and buys most of its armaments from Russia.

The country also sources large amounts of oil from Russia.

The government in New Delhi was one of the few countries to abstain from voting on the UN resolution condemning Russian aggression.

A few days ago, India abstained from a resolution and received praise from Moscow for its “independent and balanced position”.

However, India has denied Russian reports that Ukraine has taken Indian students hostage in Kharkiv.

A Russian military spokesman had claimed authorities had prevented Indians from leaving Ukrainian territory.

India has received no reports of hostage-taking, the Foreign Ministry said on Thursday.

New Delhi's reluctance is viewed critically among Western allies who want to build India as a democratic counterweight in the Indo-Pacific.

In Germany, on the other hand, the focus is currently on the rescue operations, with which the government could score politically.

Several regional elections are currently taking place, including in the most populous state of Uttar Pradesh, which is home to more than 200 million people.

The governing party in particular should benefit from a successful "Operation Ganges".

Indian media have been showing many pictures of the flights over the past few days, reporting on the students' thanks to the government and family reunions at the airport.

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The Narendra Modi government is in a dilemma because, after years of rapprochement, it does not want to jeopardize relations with the United States.

India had announced a virtual meeting of the heads of state from India, Japan, Australia and the United States as part of the Quadrilateral Security Dialogue for Thursday.

As an organization that is heavily focused on China and thus on security policy issues, the so-called Quad has experienced an appreciation in the past two years.

It is to be expected that the three partners will try to influence India's attitude.

At the same time, the members will endeavor to ensure that no deeper gulf opens up between New Delhi and the other capitals.

Young Indian Pooja Yadav is grateful to the government for standing up for her and her fellow students.

But she also sees a special responsibility because of the close ties with Russia.

She is particularly concerned about the Ukrainians.

"They are dying, they are losing their homes." At the beginning of the invasion, she still felt safe because her place of study Ivano-Frankivsk was not in the Ukrainian-Russian border area that was first hit.

But then bombs fell there too.

According to press reports, the airport was hit the hardest.

"We broke out in a panic because we realized that we were not safe anywhere in Ukraine," says the student.

Whenever the sirens wail, she and her compatriots fled to the basement of her dorm.

In between there was an eerie silence,

In an even more dangerous situation was 22-year-old student Naveen Shekharappa Gyandagoudar in Kharkiv on Tuesday.

He was killed there.

He had left the bunker in the hard-fought city in the morning to buy groceries.

On the other hand, after a few days in the basement, Pooja Yadav was able to take the bus with some fellow students towards the Romanian border.

There was a huge traffic jam there as thousands of people tried to flee.

When it was below zero, they continued to hike for hours to the border.

"It was only when we crossed the border that I felt safe," says the student.

In the hours that followed, the Romanians looked after them in a touching manner.

On the other hand, the contact to the Indian embassy worked,