New Delhi: India on Thursday said it has not received any report of a hostage situation involving Indian students in Kharkiv and that it has requested the support of Ukraine in arranging special trains for taking them out from the city and neighbouring areas.India’s comments came hours after Russia claimed that some Indian students were “actually taken hostage” by Ukrainian security forces, who use them as a “human shield” and in every possible way prevent them from leaving for Russian territory.Separately, the Ukrainian foreign ministry “urgently called on the governments of India, Pakistan, China and other counties whose students have become hostages of the Russian armed aggression in Kharkiv and Sumy, to demand from Moscow that it allows the opening of a humanitarian corridor to other Ukrainian cities.”Some Indian students were stuck in the besieged eastern Ukrainian city of Kharkiv and several other conflict zones and India has asked both Russia and Ukraine to facilitate their safe passage to the border transit points for their exit to neighbouring countries.“Our Embassy in Ukraine is in continuous touch with Indian nationals in Ukraine. We note that with the cooperation of the Ukrainian authorities, many students have left Kharkiv yesterday,” external affairs ministry spokesperson Arindam Bagchi said.“We have not received any report of any hostage situation regarding any student. We have requested the support of the Ukrainian authorities in arranging special trains for taking out students from Kharkiv and neighbouring areas to the western part of the country,” he said.Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Wednesday spoke to Russian President Vladimir Putin and discussed the safe evacuation of the Indian nationals from the conflict areas in Ukraine including Kharkiv.“The leaders reviewed the situation in Ukraine, especially in the city of Kharkiv where many Indian students are stuck.They discussed the safe evacuation of the Indian nationals from the conflict areas,” the Indian statement of the conversation said.The Russian readout said the Russian side is trying to organise an “urgent evacuation of a group of Indian students from Kharkov (Kharkiv) through the humanitarian corridor along the shortest route to Russia.”“At the same time, according to the latest information, these students are actually taken hostage by Ukrainian security forces, who use them as a human shield and in every possible way prevent them from leaving for Russian territory,” it claimed.It said the “responsibility, in this case, lies entirely with Kyiv authorities.”The Russian readout said Putin stressed that all the necessary instructions were given and that the Russian military was doing everything possible to ensure the “safe evacuation of Indian citizens from the war zone and their return to their homeland”.It also said the leaders agreed to continue close cooperation in order to ensure the safety of Indian citizens in Ukraine.Responding to media queries on Indian students, Bagchi on Thursday said India has been coordinating effectively with the countries in the region including Russia, Romania, Poland, Hungary, Slovakia and Moldova for evacuation of Indians from Ukraine.“A large number of Indian nationals have been evacuated from Ukraine in the last few days,” he said.“We appreciate the help extended by the Ukrainian authorities to make this possible. We thank Ukraine’s western neighbours in receiving Indian nationals and for accommodating them while they waited for flights to take them back home,” he added.Students in Kharkiv unhappy with ‘urgent’ advisoryOn Wednesday, the Indian embassy in Ukraine had issued an urgent advisory to citizens in Kharkiv, saying they must leave the city by 6 pm local time even if it means travelling by foot. Nearly 1,000 students are stranded in Kharkiv, according to reports.“If the situation was this bad, why did the government not ask us to leave before. Students like me repeatedly asked the government to take some action as the situation was worsening rapidly. But despite these requests nothing happened. And, now students have been asked to leave at such a short notice,” one student in Kharkiv, Bhanvi Bhatia, told The Hindu.Indian students also said that they were not being allowed into trains after the advisory. Pragun, a student, told NDTV that the Ukrainians are not letting Indians enter, adding, “They are firing… kicking us.”“We had a train in front of us but they are not allowing us. One or two gates opened for Ukrainian people. Just for them. And for us there are guns, bullets but no trains,” he said.IAF evacuation flight lands in IndiaThe IAF’s three evacuation flights with 628 Indians from the Romanian capital Bucharest, Hungary’s Budapest and Polish city Rzeszow landed at the Hindon airbase here in the early hours of Thursday.The Indian Air Force’s first flight carrying 200 people from Bucharest landed at 1:30 am and Union minister of state for defence Ajay Bhatt welcomed them at the airbase.All three IAF flights were conducted using C-17 military transport aircraft.Four Union ministers have gone to Ukraine’s western neighbours to facilitate the evacuation of Indian nationals. Hardeep Singh Puri is in Hungary, Jyotiraditya Scindia is in Romania, Kiren Rijiju is in Slovakia and V K Singh is in Poland.