[Epoch Times, March 6, 2022]Nearly two weeks after the outbreak of the Russian-Ukrainian war, a large number of Chinese citizens trapped in Ukraine and its neighboring countries are still facing difficulties. According to reports, the air ticket for the evacuation flight is as high as RMB 18,000, which is unaffordable. We hope that the airline will reduce or exempt the Chinese nationals or help from relevant departments to find a resettlement place in the local area.
According to the Weibo account “Consular Express”, at 5:41 in the morning on the 5th, the first temporary flight to pick up and return Chinese citizens evacuated from Ukraine arrived in Hangzhou. The second charter flight also departed on the morning of the 5th and arrived at Zhengzhou Xinzheng Airport on the morning of the 6th.
According to the official Weibo account of the Consular Department of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Communist Party of China on the afternoon of the 6th, “Consular Express”, as of 2:48 p.m., 4 evacuation flights had landed in China. But the official did not say the total number of people brought back.
According to the maximum passenger capacity of each evacuation flight is 301 people, so it may only take back a thousand people.
There are still large numbers of Chinese nationals evacuated from Ukraine but stranded in neighbouring countries who face difficulties.
A “petition” from Chinese students and expatriates who claimed to be evacuated from Ukraine was reported on social networking sites, saying that they could not afford a return ticket of up to 17,999 yuan. They proposed that airlines reduce the cost of air tickets, otherwise they hoped that the relevant departments could help the stranded compatriots find a place to settle in the local area.
The petition argues that this evacuation is an act of the state, and high-priced air tickets should not be issued to make the suffering compatriots pay.
The Chinese embassy in Ukraine started the evacuation registration on February 25. At the end of February, about 6,000 Chinese citizens in Ukraine had registered to evacuate. The official began the first wave of official evacuation work on February 28. According to statistics from the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs, more than 3,000 Chinese citizens have been evacuated from Ukraine, including those evacuated to neighboring countries and returned to China.
Before the war broke out, many European and American countries had issued early warnings to their nationals in Ukraine and organized the evacuation. In mid-February, countries such as the United Kingdom and the United States urged their citizens to leave Ukraine as soon as possible, but the Chinese embassy in Ukraine did not issue an appeal for evacuation.
The day after the war broke out, the Chinese embassy in Ukraine claimed that it would arrange chartered evacuation for Chinese people who wanted to leave Ukraine.
After the war began, the Chinese embassy in Uzbekistan repeatedly warned the Chinese citizens in Uzbekistan of the dangerous situation, but there was no actual evacuation action. On February 27, the Chinese embassy in Uzbekistan also stated that it is difficult to implement the plan to evacuate overseas Chinese by chartered flights at this stage. Abandon the charter plan, and instead reach the border by rail and road, and then turn to neighboring countries to wait for evacuation.
During this period, Chinese citizens in Ukraine have been shot, and Ukrainian militiamen have shot and pursued them. In addition to being ravaged by war, panic and despair accompanied them.
A Chinese student in Kharkiv, Ukraine’s second largest city, told Lu Media that it was very difficult to rent a car in Ukraine in a wartime state, so students had to leave in batches. The evacuation plan of the Chinese consulate in Ukraine is mainly based on buses, arriving at the western border of Ukraine and then entering other countries.
According to the BBC Chinese website, as of March 3, about 200 Chinese students were still stranded in Sumy Oblast in northeastern Ukraine. Some of them frequently travel to and from school dormitories and bomb shelters, while others have lived in bomb shelters since the outbreak of the war.
The report quoted local students’ comments in the WeChat group, saying that some students had just arrived in Ukraine not long before they even had a temporary resident ID card. Some students have “emotionally broken down and are reluctant to accept outside information”.
Another wrote: “103 people from the Agricultural University have not been out since the outbreak of the war, and have been in the bomb shelter. The situation there is even worse. Many buildings and churches have been bombed, unable to go out, and they are in a state of food shortage.”
Shen Yu, a local student, told British media that he contacted the Chinese embassy in Uzbekistan again in early March and was told that the local situation was complicated and the bus could not come, so he suggested to evacuate by himself. However, at this time, the students alone cannot leave. “We are not only unable to evacuate, we are stuck here,” she said.
Shen Yu said that almost all the Chinese in the Sumui area are students. There are no Chinese chambers of commerce, associations and other organizations that can help, and there is no bus willing to go out.
Responsible editor: Fang Xiao