New Delhi: Russia will conduct an investigation into the death of the 21-year-old Indian medical student in Kharkiv in Ukraine, Russian Ambassador-designate Denis Alipov said on Wednesday.
"I want to express our sympathy to the family of Naveen Shekarappa Gyanagoudar and to the entire Indian nation over the tragedy," news agency PTI quoted Alipov as saying at a media briefing.
"Russia will do everything it possibly can to ensure the safety of Indian citizens in the areas of intense conflict...and a proper investigation of this unfortunate incident," the Russian Ambassador-designate added.
Notably, Naveen Shekarappa Gyanagoudar, a fourth-year medical student at Kharkiv National Medical University, was killed in intense shelling in Kharkiv on Tuesday.
Following the tragic incident, India asked the envoys of both Russia and Ukraine to ensure ‘urgent safe passage’ to the Indian nationals who are still stranded in trouble-torn Kharkiv and other conflict zones.
Naveen hailed from Chalageri in the Haveri district of Karnataka.
Earlier, on Tuesday night, Foreign Secretary Harsh Vardhan Shringla said that Naveen's body has been identified and has been taken to a morgue in the university and that the Indian authorities are in touch with the local administration in Kharkiv to bring back his mortal remains.
According to Naveen's friends, the medical student had gone out to buy some groceries and was waiting in a queue at a shop when he was hit, Shringla said, adding that the circumstances are not absolutely clear.
Meanwhile, India has been carrying out a massive evacuation mission to bring back the Indians stranded in Ukraine amid the crisis.