India advises its citizens to leave Ukraine at earliest as conflict escalates

New Delhi

The Indian embassy in Ukraine has issued a new advisory for people travelling to the country as the conflict with Russia continue to worsen. The notification asked people to not come to Ukraine at the moment and also requested Indians living in Ukraine to leave the country and return home.

“Indian citizens, including students, in Ukraine advised to leave Ukraine at earliest,” the embassy said in the statement which was published on their official Twitter handle.

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The announcement was made just hours after Russian President Vladimir Putin announced that they will be enforcing martial law in all the four regions that they “annexed”. The four regions – Donetsk, Luhansk, Kherson and Zaporizhzhia – have experienced several tensions since the highly controversial referendums and the mostly Russia-backed local administrations took control.

Under the new order, Putin said that special powers will be granted to all the major officials in the four regions. They will be given the responsibility to maintain the status quo in those regions.

Reuters also reported that the announcement of martial law means that the local administrations will have the power to enforce curfews and ban any public gathering for the foreseeable future.

"All these territories are inalienable parts of the Russian Federation, and they are all protected. Their security is provided for at the same level as [it is for] the rest of Russia's territory," Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told the reporters.

Earlier, several loud explosions were heard in central Kyiv.  At least two blasts rang out after Monday's Russian attacks - with Iranian-made drones - aimed at energy infrastructure killed five.