President Kassym Jomart-Tokayev ordered the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to award diplomats who helped evacuate Kazakhstan citizens from Ukraine, according to a statement released by his press secretary, Berik Uali. 

On March 7, the President instructed Minister of Foreign Affairs Mukhtar Tleuberdi and Ambassador of Kazakhstan in Ukraine Darkhan Kaletaev to present diplomats, honorary consuls in Ukraine, and employees of other agencies who participated in the evacuation of Kazakh citizens from this country with state awards."

Status report

Uali, on the President's official Facebook account, wrote that Tokayev is closely monitoring the work of the MFA and other bodies responsible for repatriating citizens from the crisis zone. 

"The Head of State assesses the measures taken as successful overall. Since the beginning of the military operations, 553 of our citizens were given aid, and from those numbers, 432 have returned home. Many of them express their gratitude to the President for their rescue."

Just a week ago, on March 2, Ambassador to Ukraine Darkhan Kaletaev stated that the Kazakh Embassy in Ukraine was working closely with members of the Kazakh diaspora in Ukraine to plan the repatriation process.

All university students from Kazakhstan have been evacuated from Kharkiv, though there are families that are unable to leave due to reasons ranging from a family member with heavy health conditions to issues with documents. 

According to official Ukrainian statistics, there is an estimate of 40,000-60,000 ethnic Kazakhs living in Ukraine.

The evacuation process is still on-going.