The Supreme Court on Thursday asked attorney-general K.K. Venugopal to use his “good offices” to mitigate the hardships of the Indian students trapped in war-ravaged Ukraine.

A bench headed by Chief Justice of India N.V. Ramana made the request after senior advocate A.M. Dhar, appearing for a student petitioner, sought the court’s urgent intervention in the matter.

Justice Ramana initially wondered how the court could help, underlining that the Centre had already taken up the evacuation of the stranded Indians. Dhar told the bench that his only plea was that the court direct the Union government to immediately evacuate all the Indian students from Ukraine.

“We have all sympathies, but what direction can the court give?” the Chief Justice said. “Can we give a direction to stop the war?”

Justice Ramana later asked Venugopal, who was in the court in connection with another matter, about the steps being taken to evacuate Indians from Ukraine.

Dhar was representing a student, Fathima, whose petition says that 213 Indian students are being prevented from crossing over to Romania from Ukraine, and are having to endure freezing conditions without enough food or other basic necessities.

“Please help as you can. Mr Attorney-General, you can use your good offices to see what can be done,” Justice Ramana said.

Venugopal said the government was taking all possible steps and that a Union minister had already been sent to Romania to oversee relief and rescue.

The bench then asked Dhar to serve a copy of the petition to the attorney-general to enable him to take steps to evacuate the students.