Students evacuated from eastern Ukraine's Sumy city pose with the Chinese Ambassador to Ukraine Fan Xianrong (center) for a photo in Lviv, Ukraine on March 9, 2022. Photo: Courtesy of the Chinese Embassy in Ukraine

The Chinese Embassy in Ukraine on Wednesday released specific evacuation guidelines for Chinese nationals who want to leave the country amid a grim security situation. 

Since the security situation in Ukraine is still complex and grim with great uncertainties, the security of some Chinese compatriots who remain in Ukraine concerns the Party, the government and their families at home, and to ensure their safety and facilitate their timely evacuation, the embassy released the guidelines.

For organized evacuations, chartered buses will pick up people in three cities - Kyiv, Odessa and Lviv - from where evacuees will be transferred to third countries. This third destination will be decided on based on the security situation at the time, according to the guidelines. 

Chinese nationals are recommended to return to China upon reaching a third country,  either by taking commercial flights or charter flights. The registration for seats on charter flights is open for signing up, the embassy said.

As of press time on Thursday, 219 people had registered on the form the embassy sent out for organized evacuation, and another 62 people registered on the form for self-evacuation, according to a Global Times' count of the registration on the embassy's WeChat account.

For those who plan to organize their own evacuation, the guidelines suggested that besides making vehicle and gas preparations, they should pay attention to policies on entering third countries through Ukraine. It is recommended to apply for a visa in advance.

The embassy listed three countries as options for Chinese nationals to transfer to -

Moldova, Hungary and Poland. Currently, there are four direct flights every week from Poland to Beijing and North China's Tianjin and one direct flight from Hungary to Tianjin every week. 

The Chinese embassy also said it will offer assistance and help in coordinating evacuation matters such as emergency document processing.

The Russia-Ukraine conflict continued to escalate after the attack on the Crimean Bridge earlier this month, which prompted a harsh response from Russia, including missile strikes in Ukrainian cities. An air defense alert has been reportedly issued across Ukraine, according to Russia's Sputnik news agency on Tuesday.

Since October 11, the Chinese Embassy in Ukraine has released several security alerts and notices to help Chinese nationals register for evacuation from the country.

The move, following the large-scale evacuation in March that safely returned some 6,000 Chinese nationals in Ukraine back to their motherland, represents the Chinese government's greatest efforts to protect its citizens, Chinese experts noted.

After the evacuation mission in March, a small number of Chinese nationals returned to Ukraine for business or for school. Those who are still in the country are mostly students, businessmen or enterprise staffers stationed in Ukraine.

Global Times