Tamil Nadu Chief Minister MK Stalin on Monday urged Prime Minister Narendra Modi to consider alternate study options for thousands of Indian medical students, who have been recently evacuated from war-torn Ukraine.

In a letter posted on Twitter, Stalin said that these students now face an uncertain future.

On March 4, the Indian Medical Association and Chhattisgarh Health Minister TS Singh Deo had also separately urged the central government to enrol Indian medical students returning from Ukraine into medical colleges in the country.

After Russia invaded Ukraine on February 24, thousands of Indian students, most of them studying medicine, were left stranded. Most of them have been evacuated from Ukraine over the course of the past week.

Studying medicine in Ukraine is cheaper than in India. Medical degrees earned there are also globally recognised.

The returning students need to clear the qualifiers, which is also known as Foreign Medical Graduates Examination or the Medical Council of India Screening Test, to practice as doctors in India.

In his letter to Modi, Stalin requested the prime minister to take up the matter with the National Medical Commission as well as government ministries.

The Tamil Nadu chief minister said that there must be a solution that would allow the affected students to continue with their studies in India from the stage where they had been disrupted while in Ukraine.

Stalin said 1,200 medical students have returned to Tamil Nadu so far, with more expected in the coming days.

“The current situation has already resulted in disruption of their studies and also threatens their future careers,” he said his letter.

The Tamil Nadu chief minister said that in view of the unprecedented situation, it may not be possible for the Indian students to return to their colleges in Ukraine.

“The uncertainty is likely to prevail even after the cessation of hostilities and till the restoration of normalcy in their universities,” he said.

Stalin assured the Centre of all possible support from the state government in making efforts to accommodate the students who have returned to India.