'I want to be with the Ukrainian people and serve those I know here.'
'In many cases, I didn't take money because the Indian students had run out of cash.' 'The biggest high was the blessings that these students's parents used to give me on the phone or send messages thanking me on WhatsApp.'
'There were moments when you didn't know if you will get out of there alive.'
A day later, Hussain's family in Kerala are thankful he escaped but also know that many perils lie ahead.
Top external affairs ministry officials on Monday briefed a parliamentary panel about efforts to bring back Indians stranded in war-hit Ukraine, including plans for 13 evacuation flights in the next two-three days to its neighbouring countries and subsequent increase in the number of daily flights to nine, sources said.
'We are trying to trace them.' 'We feel their phone batteries must have died because they are travelling by road.'
About 16,000 Indians, mostly students, are stranded in Ukraine as Russia's invasion of the east European country entered its second day on Friday. Of the students, many studying medicine in Kharkiv and Kyiv, about 2,500 are from Gujarat and 2,320 from Kerala.
Belarusian athlete Tsimanouskaya, 24, had been due to compete in the women's 200 metre heats on Monday but said that on Sunday she was taken to the airport to board a Turkish Airlines flight.
President of the European Council Charles Michel on Tuesday spoke to Prime Minister Narendra Modi and conveyed his condolences over the death of Naveen Shekarappa Gyanagoudar, a native of Karnataka.
On Monday, the fifth Air India flight landed in Delhi from Bucharest with 249 Indian nationals while the sixth flight arrived from Budapest here with 240 Indian nationals, the officials said.
At least three students from Maharashtra pursuing medicine in Kharkiv, located in northeast Ukraine, narrated how they had to stand in long queues for a can of water, drink soda, stay in bunkers.
'Our future is in limbo. The government saved us with Operation Ganga; now, they must save our careers.'
'We are not getting any clear guidance on what to do. Initially, we were asked to move to the bunker...when we packed our bags and reached there, our university head asked to go back to our hostel room. So we came back. Movement is very risky these time'
'Sholay wallah kahani hai: 'Gabbar Singh aayega, Gabbar Singh aayega.' 'But what is inside Gabbar Singh nobody knows.'
Exhausted but elated, around 600 Indian students, who waged a tough battle for survival before being pulled out of war-battered Ukrainian city of Sumy, are now on way to Poland on a train from where they will be flown back home likely on Thursday.
Putin is looking beyond the current regime in Kyiv. Of course, if the Western military assistance to Kyiv continues in any form, Washington knows that Russia will regard it as a hostile act and there will be severe consequences, predicts Ambassador M K Bhadrakumar.
The MEA said Indian nationals residing in Iraq are advised to be alert and may avoid travel within Iraq. The DGCA asked airlines to take all precautions in airspace over Iran, Iraq, Gulf of Oman and waters of Persian Gulf.
Johnson said Modi has been 'very strong' in his reaction to what happened in Bucha in Ukraine and that everyone understands and respects New Delhi's decades-old historic relationship with Moscow.
The Ukranian nationals behind the stabbing were held.
Jaishankar said all members would agree that India's approach should be guided by its national beliefs and values, national interest and by its national strategy.
According to the ministry, "potentially dangerous or difficult situations" that are "to be expected" include use of Molotov cocktails (including by local people or militia), building collapse, falling debris, internet jamming, lack of electricity or food or water, exposure to freezing temperature, psychological trauma, injuries, lack of medical support, lack of transportation and face-to-face situation with armed fighters or military personnel.
The volunteering students are studying in China, Uzbekistan and Philippines.
Allegations also cropped up against the local BJP MP that he did not respond to the SOS calls from the stranded students, a charge denied by the elected representative.
Poland, which has long been critical of Lukashenko and harboured many activists from Belarus, has granted her and her husband humanitarian visas.
'He will consolidate the Russian hold over the Eastern Russian majority provinces in Ukraine and quickly withdraw from the rest of Ukraine.' 'At all costs, the Russians should avoid attacking and capturing urban areas, else they risk getting into a quagmire,' cautions Colonel Anil A Athale (retd).
'If the Russian forces do capture Kyiv and set up some sort of provisional government, they might run into an insurgency, for which the geography is just right, it could prove costly for them.' 'In that event, the whole exercise could turn out to be counter-productive -- and costly in both foreign policy and domestic terms.'
External affairs ministry spokesperson Arindam Bagchi said at a media briefing that 1,396 Indians were brought back home in six flights in the last few days as part of the evacuation mission.
A declassified report by the United States intelligence released stated that Russia and Iran undertook campaigns to influence the 2020 Presidential election, but intelligence agencies found no evidence that foreign actors tried to alter votes or other technical aspects of the voting process.
Terming the crash of a Malaysian airliner in eastern Ukraine as a "terrible tragedy", US President Barack Obama said officials were trying to establish if any Americans were on board.
'He is not that crazy.' 'He is driven by a deep sense of Russian power have been diminished.'
'Putin is just flexing his muscles. He is not going to do anything. He is not that crazy.'
The media report said Ukraine's National Anti-Corruption Bureau has sent a request to the ministry of home affairs seeking legal assistance in its probe into the alleged kickbacks.
Russia on Sunday mourned its biggest ever air disaster after a passenger jet full of Russian tourists crashed in Egypt's Sinai, killing all 224 people on board.
The incident took place as residents and visiting soccer fans from around the world thronged the centre of Moscow on a balmy summer evening.
'I had to convince myself that I was steely enough to operate on a cold-blooded killer.' 'For all my medical experience, this was something I had never done!' 'If something happened to Charles, I knew my fate was sealed for me.' 'I would be called Doctor Death until I breathed my last.' 'Success was my only hope of escaping that fate.' A fascinating excerpt from heart surgeon Dr Raamesh Koirala's Charles Sobhraj, Inside The Heart Of The Bikini Killer.
Some stunning moments of the week that was
Is Devyani Khobragade's arrest connected to India detaining an anti-piracy ship owned by a US security firm, asks Colonel Anil A Athale (retd).
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