Stepping up its efforts to evacuate Indian students stranded in war-hit Ukraine, the Centre on Monday decided that Union ministers Hardeep Puri, Jyotiraditya Scindia, Kiren Rijiju and V K Singh will travel to its neighbouring countries to coordinate the evacuation mission and help students, government sources said.

These ministers will be going there as "special envoys" of India, they said.

The decision was taken at a high-level meeting chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

Several ministers, including External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar and Commerce Minister Piyush Goyal, also attended the meeting.

Modi had chaired a meeting on the Ukraine crisis on Sunday too and had asserted that ensuring the safety of Indian students and evacuating them is the government's top priority.

It was also decided at the meeting to further enhance cooperation with the neighbouring countries of Ukraine to expedite the evacuation of Indian students, sources had said.

Around 16,000 students are believed to be stuck in Ukraine, hiding in bunkers, bomb shelters or their hostel basements.

Opposition parties, mainly the Congress, have been sharing videos of students' SOS and have attacked the government for not bringing back students sooner, reports ndtv.com

Those still in the country have been trying to make their way to the border so they can take Air India evacuation flights arranged from neighbouring countries like Romania, Hungary, Slovak Republic and Poland.

Many students have ventured out on foot, desperate to reach the border.

The fifth evacuation flight came from Romanian capital Bucharest to Delhi on Monday morning with 249 Indian nationals who were stranded in Ukraine amid the Russian military offensive, officials said.

The first evacuation flight, AI1944, bringing back 219 people from Bucharest to Mumbai, landed on Saturday.

The second evacuation flight, with 250 on board, landed in Delhi around 2.45 am on Sunday.

The third flight brings 240 Indian nationals from Ukraine and the fouth flight brings 198 citizens of India to Delhi.

Indians who reached the Romania and Hungary borders have been taken to Bucharest and Budapest by road, with help from government officials, so that they could be evacuated in these Air India flights.

Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskyy on Saturday had spoken to Prime Minister Narendra Modi and sought India's political support at the UN Security Council to stop Russia's military offensive against his country.

President Zelenskyy's telephonic conversation with Prime Minister Modi came hours after India abstained on a UN Security Council resolution by the US that "deplores in the strongest terms" Russia's "aggression" against Ukraine.

India had also abstained from a procedural vote taken in the UN Security Council to call for a rare special emergency session of the UN General Assembly on Russia's aggression against Ukraine, even as New Delhi welcomed Moscow and Kyiv's decision to hold talks at the Belarus border.

The resolution was adopted with 11 votes in favour, paving the way for the General Assembly to meet on the crisis as soon as Monday. India, China and the UAE abstained, while Russia voted against the resolution. This will be only the 11th such emergency session of the General Assembly since 1950.

The vote calling for the UNGA session was procedural so none of the five permanent members of the Security Council -- China, France, Russia, the UK and the US -- could exercise their vetoes.

"It is regrettable that the situation in Ukraine has worsened further since the Council last convened on this matter," India's Permanent Representative to the UN Ambassador TS Tirumurti said in the explanation of Sunday's vote.

He underlined that "there is no other choice but to return to the path of diplomacy and dialogue." "We welcome today's announcement by both sides to hold talks at the Belarus border," he said.

Modi on Thursday had spoken to Russian President Vladimir Putin on the Ukraine conflict and appealed for immediate cessation of violence as well as concerted efforts from all sides to return to the path of diplomatic negotiations.

During their telephonic conversation, President Putin briefed Prime Minister Modi about the recent developments regarding Ukraine, the Prime Minister's Office said in a statement.

With PTI inputs