External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar stated that there were two instances when Prime Minister Narendra Modi intervened to halt shelling between Russia and Ukraine to ensure Indian students were safely evacuated from the war zone. In an exclusive interview with Hindustan Times' R Sukumar and Shishir Gupta, Jaishankar mentioned that this is the most frequently asked question directed to him, as people are genuinely interested to know what Narendra Modi did to halt the war.
During the evacuation mission, there were two incidents: one in Kharkiv and the other in Sumy, as mentioned by Jaishankar. The first incident occurred in Kharkiv, which was then experiencing artillery shelling. India arranged a safe zone to evacuate students who were walking out of the city due to the absence of other transportation options. "While this evacuation was underway, shelling resumed very close to the safe zone. On that occasion, the Prime Minister spoke to President Putin and specifically requested him to intervene, stating, 'This was an agreement between your people and our people, and it is being violated. I would request you to personally ensure that it stops,'" Jaishankar explained. "After a few hours, the Russian shelling ceased, and the buses were able to pick up the students and bring them out safely."
During that time, India made two calls – Narendra Modi spoke to Russian President Vladimir Putin and Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelensky. "I requested the PM, saying that look, you will have to speak to Putin and Zelensky, which he was very willing to do and he actually spoke to both of them and told them ‘Look, this is very, very important, you know, we want your forces to stand down and give us a pathway and my officials will work out the details’. So, they passed the instructions down. I was actually sitting with the PM, and he called up Putin and Zelensky," Jaishankar said.