Thousands of Indian medical students were left stranded with their future hanging on the cliff when Russia attacked Ukraine at the end of February 2022 and several were evacuated from Ukraine to India.
Russia has served an offer for Indian students who left Ukraine due to the war. The country said the such students can continue their studies in Russia. A Russian envoy said the medical syllabus is the same in both countries.
Russian Consul General Oleg Avdeev in Chennai said, “Indian students who left Ukraine can continue their education in Russia as the medical syllabus is almost the same (as Ukraine).
They know the language of the people, as, in Ukraine, most of them speak Russian. They’re most welcome in Russia”.
Responding to a question on Russian oil exports, the Russian diplomat said that since the beginning of this year, the exports of Russian oil have increased from 2 to 22 pc, which is a very dramatic increase.
“Since the beginning of this year, the exports in Russian oil have increased from 2 to 22 pc. It is a very dramatic increase and now Russia has displaced Iraq and Saudi Arabia as leading producers of oil,” Oleg Avdeev said.
As far as students are concerned, students keep going to Russia for studies. It is an upward trend. More and more students are applying for scholarships in Russia,” the Russian diplomat added.
The offer comes two months after the Union government rejected to give medical seats to distressed students in their own country.
The Centre had told the Supreme Court that Indian students pursuing MBBS in Ukraine, whose studies were disrupted because of war and subsequent evacuation, would not be admitted to medical colleges in India as that would amount to giving ‘backdoor entry’ to less meritorious students.
The centre carved out an exception for the final year medical students and said, “Indian students, who were in the last year of their undergraduate medicine courses and had to leave their foreign medical institutions due to Covid-19 and Russia-Ukraine conflict and subsequently completed their studies to get completion certificate from their respective institutions on or before June 30, have been permitted to appear in Foreign Medical Graduate Examination (FMGE)
On Tuesday, EAM Jaishankar reiterated the deep ties between India and Russia, and said, “India’s relationship with Russia has worked to its advantage and New Delhi would like to keep that going.”
It said that these students had gone abroad to study medicine because of their poor scores on the NEET exam and the affordability of education in those countries. “In case these students with poor merit allowed admissions in premier medical colleges in India by default, there may be several litigations from those desirous students who could not get admission because of poor scores in NEET”, it said.
Every year, numerous Indian students travel to both Ukraine and Russia to study medicine and other specialised courses.
Notably, Russian forces launched military operations in Ukraine on February 24, three days after Moscow recognized Ukraine’s breakaway regions – Donetsk and Luhansk as independent entities.
Several countries including the UK, the US, Canada, and the European Union have condemned Russia’s military operations in Ukraine and imposed sanctions on Moscow. These countries have also promised to help Ukraine with military aid to fight Russia.
