Prime Minister Narendra Modi spoke with Russian President Vladimir Putin appealing for the immediate cessation of violence in Ukraine, the Prime Minister's Office said on Thursday evening.
The PMO informed that Putin briefed PM Modi about the recent developments regarding Ukraine.
"PM reiterated his long-standing conviction that differences between Russia, NATO can be resolved through dialogue.
"He called for concerted efforts from all sides to return to path of diplomatic negotiations, dialogue."
"Prime Minister also sensitised the Russian President about India's concerns regarding the safety of the Indian citizens in Ukraine, especially students, and conveyed that India attaches the highest priority to their safe exit and return to India.
"The leaders agreed that their officials and diplomatic teams would continue to maintain regular contacts on issues of topical interest," said PMO in a press release.
Earlier, the government of India had said that it places the safety and security of its citizens as 'topmost priority' as an invasion of Ukraine is underway.
"The External Affairs Minister will be speaking to the foreign ministers of the countries neighbouring Ukraine namely Poland, Romania, Slovakia and Hungary," said Foreign Secretary of India, Harsh Vardhan Shringla in an online address on Thursday.
Shringla said India had anticipated the worsening of the situation in Ukraine and took necessary steps to ensure the safety of its citizens at least a month ago.
"A number of steps have been taken to deal with the emerging situation in Ukraine, including the contingencies that could arise," said Shringla referring to the present situation in the Eastern European nation.
"We started the registration of Indian nationals in Ukraine about a month ago.
"Our embassy anticipated the need to connect and be in contact with all Indian students in Ukraine.
"Based on the online registration process conducted by the embassy we found that there are close to 20,000 Indian nationals, including students in Ukraine."
The government has said that so far at least 4,000 Indians have left Ukraine.
Shringla said that was made possible after the civil aviation departments of both countries "removed the cap on the number of passengers that could fly out Ukraine".
Earlier, only 440 could fly out every week. "The number of flights was augmented from twice a week to two flights a day and that enabled us to get at least 4,000 of our citizens out," said Shringla.
He added that the Embassy of India in Kyiv continues to be functional, notwithstanding the evolving situation.
(With agency inputs)
