News
No plans to pull Lankans out of Ukraine
Sri Lanka is monitoring the unrest in Ukraine where about 200 Sri Lankans live but there are no plans to ask them to leave, according to Udayanga Weeratunga, who is Ambassador to Russia with concurrent accreditation to Ukraine. Mr. Weeratunga said that of the 200 Sri Lankans in Ukraine, about 60 are students but the situation did not warrant an official travel advisory for Sri Lankans.
However, India has asked its citizens in Ukraine to leave and advised Indians to avoid non-essential travel to that country.“Most Sri Lankans are registered with our embassy in Russia. I have spoken to the Lankan students, many of whom are in Lugansk in eastern Ukraine. They are preparing for their examinations and will leave the country in about a month for their vacations,” he told the Sunday Times via telephone.Ambassador Weeratunga said that despite sporadic incidents of violence, no Sri Lankans had been harmed.
India on Friday issued a travel advisory to its citizens saying that in view of the security situation in Donetsk and Lugansk regions in eastern Ukraine marked by frequent violent clashes, “Indian citizens, particularly students, are strongly advised to leave these regions as soon as possible.” Meanwhile plans to open a Sri Lankan embassy in Ukraine have been put on hold because of the political crisis there.
President Mahinda Rajapaksa visited Ukraine in June, 2010, the first by a Sri Lankan Head of State. More than 39,000 Ukrainian tourists visited Sri Lanka last year