[Watch] ‘My Daughter Told Me Think I’m Among Them’: Odisha-Born Ukraine Ambassador Sees Off Students At Lviv

Lviv: Partha Satpathy, the Odisha-born Indian Ambassador to Ukraine, was at Lviv railway station on Wednesday to see off the more than 600 Indian students, including five from Odisha, where they boarded a train to Poland after being evacuated from Sumy.

The students have already reached Poland, from where they will board Operation Ganga flights to India on Thursday.

The Lviv railway station was the last stop of the students in Ukraine after an arduous and risky journey by bus and train from Sumy via Poltava.

“This is perhaps one of the happiest moments of my life. It has been very difficult for all of you. It was equally difficult for all of us. When sometimes I thought of the difficulties in getting all of you out, my daughter would call up and say, ‘Dad, think I’m among them’. This is the attitude with which we all worked at the embassy,” Satpathy told the students in Lviv.

“This is my message to your parents. We promised to bring every Indian back, this was the PM’s direct order. Get every Indian back. This is what we have done and so happy that you will be with you parents,” he told them.

“It has been a very difficult time for the people of Ukraine too. They have helped you, railways have helped you, the border point has helped you. Appreciate what they have done,” Satpathy said.

 

 

The evacuation of the Indian students from Sumy began on Tuesday.

The students were taken from Sumy in a convoy of 13 buses escorted by the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) to Poltava in central Ukraine, a three-hour drive from Sumy.

From Poltava, they reached Lviv in western Ukraine by train, a journey of 888 km. At Lviv railway station, they boarded a train to Poland.

Satpathy flagged off the special train at Lviv.

An earlier attempt to evacuate the students was not successful after a promised ceasefire was broken. Prime Minister Narendra Modi then spoke to both Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and Russian President Vladimir Putin to discuss the evacuation of the students.

Satpathy is an alumnus of Stewart School in Odisha’s Capital Bhubaneswar.

He graduated in Physics from Delhi University (DU), following it up with an MBA from the Indian Institute of Management (IIM), Ahmedabad, followed by a Masters in Human Rights and International Law from the Human Rights Centre in Essex, UK.

A 1990-batch IFS officer, Satpathy served as Head of Latin America & Caribbean Division in the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) before being appointed as India’s Ambassador to Ukraine.

Also read: https://odishabytes.com/watch-indian-students-in-ukraines-sumy-including-five-from-odisha-reach-poland/

Also read: https://odishabytes.com/i-am-partha-satpathy-odisha-born-ambassador-to-ukraine-reaches-out-to-indians-as-nation-comes-under-attack/