The Indian Embassy in Ukraine on Monday advised citizens stranded in Kyiv to head to the railway station as the city lifted the weekend curfew.

The embassy said that Ukrainian authorities have started special trains for evacuations that Indians could use to reach border areas of the country.

India is looking to evacuate its citizens through land routes after Ukraine closed its airspace for civilian aircraft following the attack from Russia. So far, the government’s evacuation plan has been to make the citizens cross over to Ukraine’s neighbouring countries Poland, Hungary, Romania and Slovakia and then fly them to India.

On Sunday, Foreign Secretary Harsh Vardhan Shringla had said that India is ensuring the safety of its nationals stuck in areas witnessing intense fighting, including capital Kyiv which has around 2,000 Indian nationals, according to PTI.

“Our Embassy in Kyiv is operational, obviously, austerities in the area are making regular activity difficult,” Shringla had said during a media briefing, according to NDTV. “We are aware of the number of Indian citizens, particularly students, who continue to be in cities in the east of Ukraine and southeast Ukraine.”

He also said that a 24x7 control room was established at the Indian Embassy in Kyiv.

Many Indians stuck in Ukraine have alleged that they have been stopped from crossing the country’s borders and have been assaulted by the authorities of the conflict-hit country. Since Sunday, several of them have described their ordeal on social media.

Relatives and friends of those stuck in Ukraine also shared accounts of students who walked for hours to reach the Ukraine-Poland border, only to be told that they will not be allowed to cross over.

So far, five flights, carrying more than 200 citizens each, have evacuated Indians under the “Operation Ganga”.

Meanwhile, Ukraine said that Russians have slowed down “the pace of the offensive” as the invasion by Moscow entered the fifth day on Monday, according to AFP.

“The Russian occupiers have reduced the pace of the offensive, but are still trying to develop success in some areas,” the general staff of the armed forces said.

Talks between Russia and Ukraine are also underway in Belarus.