Ukraine war: China completes belated evacuation mission

Name: ‘The entire window was shaking’: Chinese students trapped in Ukraine as Russia attacks
Uploaded: 2022-03-28T12:03:14.000Z
Duration: 2 min 23 s
Description: ‘The entire window was shaking’: Chinese students trapped in Ukraine as Russia attacks

Unlike other countries, Beijing did not suggest its nationals leave Ukraine until after the Russian invasion was launched

Foreign ministry says government arranged for 4,600 citizens to return home on chartered flights

2-MIN READ2-MIN

About 6,000 Chinese citizens were in Ukraine when the war erupted. Photo: AP

Minnie Chan

Published: 8:03pm, 28 Mar 2022

China has completed the evacuation of all Chinese nationals from Ukraine, the foreign ministry said on Monday, just over a month after Russia launched its invasion.

Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin said the mission had been wrapped up “without deaths or major casualties”.

“The evacuation of Chinese citizens has come to an end, but the mission to protect the security, legitimate rights and interests of overseas Chinese has yet to be completed,” Wang said.

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‘The entire window was shaking’: Chinese students trapped in Ukraine as Russia attacks

He said more than 5,200 Chinese nationals in Ukraine had been evacuated to neighbouring countries including Moldova, Romania, Hungary, Slovakia, Poland and Belarus.

Of those, 4,600 returned to China on government-chartered flights, while others made their own arrangements.

Wang said the Chinese citizens made their way out of Ukraine safely with the help of governments in neighbouring nations, except for one person who was injured driving a car out of the country.

Unlike many other nations, China waited until after war broke out on February 24 before telling its roughly 6,000 citizens – mostly students and businesspeople – to leave Ukraine.

Beijing’s slow response to the war and its late evacuation efforts raised speculation that China was surprised by the invasion, despite its close ties with Moscow – Russian President Vladimir Putin visited Beijing for the Winter Olympics three weeks before the war.