Russia/Ukraine Crisis: 26 Flights to Evacuation Indian Citizens – Foreign Secretary … Says, no Indian left in Kyiv

Russia/Ukraine Crisis: 26 Flights to Evacuation Indian Citizens – Foreign Secretary

… Says, no Indian left in Kyiv

India will operate 26 flights over the next three days to fly back Indian citizens who have moved from Ukraine to neighbouring countries.

Foreign Secretary Harsh Vardhan Shringla told reporters after Prime Minister Narendra Modi chaired a meeting on the country’s evacuation efforts.

Romania’s Bucharest and Hungary’s Budapest, airports in Poland and Slovak Republic will also be used, he added. The Indian embassy in Kyiv has been shut and the staff shifted in view of possible escalation in Russian military action. Mr Shringla also said no Indian citizen is left in the city.

Under the “Mission Ganga” plans, there are 46 flights till March 8, of which 29 will take off from Bucharest, 10 from Budapest, six from Poland’s Rzeszow, and one from Slovakia’s Kocise. The Air Force will operate one flight from Bucharest.

There were an estimated 20,000 Indian students in Ukraine when the government issued its first advisory. “From that number, approximately 12,000 have since left Ukraine, which is 60 per cent of the total,” the Foreign Secretary said.

“Of the remaining 40 per cent, roughly half remain in conflict zone in Kharkiv, Sumy area and the other half has either reached the western borders of Ukraine or are heading towards the western part of Ukraine… they are generally out of conflict areas,” the Foreign Secretary said.

Russia had earlier told Kyiv residents to flee their homes and rained rockets on the city of Kharkiv.

Source: ndtv