President of the National Union of Ghana Students (NUGS)-Ukraine, Philip Ansah has disclosed that the number of Ghanaian students and non-students in Ukraine could be around 1500.
“But we can also project that we have about 1200 students in Ukraine, we should not forget that we have non-students here who are businessmen and women. So in total, we have 1500 Ghanaians living in Ukraine now,” he said in an interview.
The NUGS President said “What the student body has been advising is that they should stay and keep safe since Russia is not making any attempt of attacking a civilian. That is per the information we have.”
“The President of Ukraine this morning encouraged its members to stay at home and stay put, that they are trying to resolve the issue. They are inviting international friends and communities to come to their aid. But we woke up this morning, the report I had from my correspondent in other cities as well as there are traffic jams as of this morning. You could see Ukrainians trying to leave and it is unprecedented, we have not seen this before,” he narrated.
Mr. Ansah disclosed that Ghana does not have an Embassy in Ukraine so Ghanaians in Ukraine operate under Switzerland.
“We kept pushing but they told us that until they hear a directive from the Ministry in Accra they cannot issue anything to us on their accord,” he added.
Russia has begun a large-scale military attack on Ukraine, its southern neighbour, on the orders of Russian President Vladimir Putin.
There are reports of attacks on Ukrainian military infrastructure across the country, and Russian convoys entering from all directions.
Putin orders attack
In a televised speech at 05:55 Moscow time (02:55 GMT), Mr Putin announced a “military operation” in Ukraine’s eastern Donbas region. This area is home to many Russian-speaking Ukrainians. Parts of it has been occupied and run by Russian-backed rebels since 2014.
Mr Putin said Russia was intervening as an act of self-defence. Russia did not want to occupy Ukraine, he said, but would demilitarise and “de-Nazify” the country.
He urged Ukrainian soldiers in the combat zone to lay down their weapons and go home, and warned Ukraine that it would be blamed for any bloodshed.
But clashes between Russian and Ukrainian forces were inevitable and “only a question of time”, Mr Putin said.
And he added that any intervention from outside powers to resist the Russian attack would be met with an “instant” response and the aggressor would be destroyed.
