ISLAMABAD: The Pakistan embassy in Ukraine asked its nationals on Sunday to follow local rules and regulations after 15 students were arrested while trying to escape to Germany from Poland.

The embassy in Kyiv has been trying to evacuate Pakistani nationals since Russia launched a massive military invasion of Ukraine on Thursday.

According to its officials, a majority of 3,000 Pakistani students have been evacuated from the Eastern European state after Russian armed forces started pounding Ukrainian cities with artillery shells and cruise missiles.

“Avoid trying to escape,” an official of the Pakistan embassy told a group of students being evacuated to Poland on Sunday. “For the last two days, entry to Poland has been closed since 15 Pakistanis who previously entered the Polish territory were caught while trying to escape to Germany.”

The official said the incident prompted the European Union to stop Poland from allowing any entry from Ukraine.

“After the efforts and requests of our ambassador in Poland, they have granted evacuation permission on humanitarian grounds,” he informed.

The Pakistan embassy said the evacuated students were getting a 15-day visa, adding they could not travel any other country except their own.

Pakistan’s foreign minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi on Sunday called his Ukrainian counterpart Dmytro Kuleba to share his “serious concern” over the intensifying Russian invasion of the Eastern European country and urged for de-escalation.

The development came as street fighting broke out in Ukraine’s second-largest city of Kharkiv and Russian troops squeezed strategic ports in the country’s south, advances that appeared to mark a new phase of Russia’s invasion following a wave of attacks on airfields and fuel facilities elsewhere in the country.

Ukraine’s capital, Kyiv, was eerily quiet on Sunday after huge explosions lit up the morning sky and authorities reported blasts at one of the airports. Only an occasional car appeared on a deserted main boulevard as a strict 39-hour curfew kept people off the streets. Terrified residents instead hunkered down in homes, underground garages and subway stations in anticipation of a full-scale Russian assault.

Like many other nations, Pakistan has been busy evacuating its nationals from Ukraine to neighboring Poland and Romania.

“Spoke with Ukrainian FM Dmytro Kuleba and shared Pakistan’s serious concern, underscoring the importance of de-escalation and indispensability of diplomacy,” the Pakistani foreign minister said on Twitter.