A Bharatiya Janata Party MLA from Karnataka remarked on Thursday that a coffin in a plane would occupy space that could otherwise be used for eight to ten students stranded in Ukraine, Deccan Herald reported.

The Hubbali-Dharwad MLA, Arvind Bellad, made the statement in the context of uncertainty over bringing back the remains of Naveen Shekharappa Gyanagoudar, the student who was killed in shelling in Ukraine.

“A coffin would occupy the seats of 8 to 10 students in the plane,” Bellad said. “Therefore, the priority is on evacuating the medical students stranded in the war-hit nation and bring them back alive.”

The MLA, however, said that Prime Minister Narendra Modi himself was trying to ensure that Gyanagoudar’s body returned to India. The student hailed from Haveri district in Karnataka.

Gyanagoudar was killed on Tuesday in shelling in the eastern Ukrainian city of Kharkiv after he left the bunker where he had been sheltering with other Indians to get food.

His father Shekarappa said that the government had assured him that his son’s body would be brought back to India within two days, according to NDTV. He said that he urged Modi and Karnataka Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai to help bring back his son’s body.

Russia had launched an invasion of Ukraine on February 24, calling it a “special military operation” aimed at dislodging “neo-Nazis” ruling the country. It has also cited threats emanating from Ukraine as a reason for attacking the country.

Ukraine, however, has denied that it poses a threat to Russia.

On Wednesday, Russian Ambassador-designate to India Denis Alipov said that Moscow was working “intensely” to create a humanitarian corridor for Indians stranded in conflict zones in Ukraine.

However, another Indian student was shot in the Ukrainian capital city of Kyiv, Union minister said on Thursday. The student has been admitted to a hospital in Kyiv, Singh said.