DigitEye India Fact Checkers
As the Russia-Ukraine war reached its peak, several stranded Indian students in Ukraine were asked to go to neighbouring countries from where they were airlifted to India under the “Operation Ganga”. But social media is abuzz with a claim that Russia had agreed to a ceasefire and gave 6 hours window specifically to evacuate the stranded Indians from Kharkiv city, after PM Narendra Modi’s phone call to Putin.
Posted by BJP Maharashtra unit on Twitter on 03 March 2020, it claimed: हा नवीन भारत आहे! युक्रेनमधून भारतीयांना सुरक्षितपणे बाहेर काढण्यासाठी 6 तास रशियाने युद्ध थांबवलं. पंतप्रधान श्री. @narendramodi जी यांनी रशियन राष्ट्राध्यक्ष ब्लादीमीर पुतीन यांच्याशी बोलल्यावर हे शक्य झालं. रशियन एअरफोर्स विमान व सैनिकी वाहनाने बाहेर काढण्याचं जाहीर केलं. pic.twitter.com/rf3i0Ad8k7 — भाजपा महाराष्ट्र (@BJP4Maharashtra) March 3, 2022 [It reads in English:”This is the new India! Russia stopped fighting for 6 hours to get Indians out of Ukraine safely. Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modiji made it possible when he spoke to Russian President Vladimir Putin. Russian Air Force aircraft and military vehicles announced the evacuation.”]
हा नवीन भारत आहे!
युक्रेनमधून भारतीयांना सुरक्षितपणे बाहेर काढण्यासाठी 6 तास रशियाने युद्ध थांबवलं.पंतप्रधान श्री. @narendramodi जी यांनी रशियन राष्ट्राध्यक्ष ब्लादीमीर पुतीन यांच्याशी बोलल्यावर हे शक्य झालं.
रशियन एअरफोर्स विमान व सैनिकी वाहनाने बाहेर काढण्याचं जाहीर केलं. pic.twitter.com/rf3i0Ad8k7
— भाजपा महाराष्ट्र (@BJP4Maharashtra) March 3, 2022
It was soon shared by News18 anchor Amish Devgan, Indian News anchor Pradeep Bhandari, Postcard founder Mahesh Vikram Hedge, TV9 executive editor Aditya Raj Kaul are among those who shared the claim without checking the facts from the Ministry of External Affairs. Some media outlets like ABP News, News18, Zee News, and Amar Ujala also reported on the same lines.
Fact Check:
The viral claim, strange in any country’s diplomacy, has prompted us to verify only to find it false and without any basis. The Ministry of External Affairs has unequivocally denied the claim underlining the fact that if war stopped for 6 hours on India’s request, so the resumption of firing after that will also be attributed to India, which is not the case here.
An official statement of the Foreign Ministry on DD News dated 03 March 2022 featured the Foreign Ministry spokesperson who denied reports that Russia had halted the war for six hours to allow Indians to leave Kharkiv.
During the press conference (above), Arindam Bagchi, spokesperson of MEA, said, “Extrapolating that to say that somebody is holding a bombing or that this is something we are coordinating, that I think is absolutely inaccurate. I don’t think If I could be more facetious, then it will extrapolate itself. It will be the same thing whether the bombing started again on our request.”
He further said: “We are in touch with the authorities of Ukraine and Russia to evacuate Indians from Kharkiv and Sumy. Despite our advice, we estimate that a few hundred Indians are still in Kharkiv. Hence, the claim is baseless and false.
Claim: Russia stopped the war for 6 hours to allow the evacuation of Indian nationals from Kharkiv.
Conclusion: MEA spokesperson Arindam Bagchi clarified that the claim of Russia stopping war for six hours to allow evacuation of Indian citizens from Ukraine is false.
Rating: Misrepresentation — 
