China has begun evacuating its people from Ukraine, according to official media, over worries for their safety as a result of Beijing’s ally Russia’s invasion, as well as allegations of ensuing hostility from irate Ukrainians.
According to the state-run Global Times newspaper, 600 Chinese students were evacuated from Kyiv and the southern port city of Odessa on Monday, citing the Chinese embassy in Kiev.
According to the report, they traveled by bus to neighboring Moldova under the protection of an embassy guard and local police, and the six-hour ride was “safe and smooth.”
A further 1,000 Chinese nationals will leave Ukraine on Tuesday bound for Poland and Slovakia, both European Union member states, the report added.
China has trod a cautious diplomatic tightrope on the conflict, balancing its oft-repeated insistence on the sanctity of state sovereignty with an unwillingness to call out its close ally Russia.
While countries including the US, UK and Japan evacuated diplomats and urged citizens to leave in the weeks before the invasion, China waited until Thursday before announcing it would organise charter flights to evacuate its nationals.
But the flights have not yet materialised and Ukraine later closed its airspace, leaving the Chinese ambassador to deny he had fled Kyiv and stress the need to “wait until it is safe” to evacuate during a Sunday video message.
China has said around 6,000 of its citizens are based in Ukraine for work and study.
Its embassy in Kyiv initially urged those planning to leave to clearly fix a Chinese flag to their vehicles, but reversed course amid unverified social media claims of rising hostility towards Chinese citizens from Ukrainians.
Two other EU nations — Hungary and Romania — will provide assistance to Chinese nationals coming from Ukraine, the embassy said in a Monday statement.