An Indian Air Force (IAF) flight with 119 Indians and 27 foreigners landed at Hindon airbase in New Delhi from the Romanian capital Bucharest on Thursday morning, sources said. These Indians and foreigners were stranded in Ukraine due to the Russian military offensive that began on February 24, they mentioned.
This was the 17th flight that the IAF has operated to evacuate people stranded in Ukraine. India has been evacuating its citizens from war-torn Ukraine's neighbouring countries such as Romania, Hungary, Slovakia and Poland as the Ukrainian airspace has been shut since February 24.
The IAF flight — which was operated on a C-17 military transport aircraft — landed in Delhi around 5.40 am on Thursday, sources said. Minister of State for External Affairs Rajkumar Ranjan Singh received the Indians and foreigners at the airbase, they said.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Saturday had said that more than 19,000 Indian nationals have been evacuated from war-torn Ukraine under Operation Ganga. He also said that the government is coordinating with countries to enable the safe return of Indians stranded in the country.
The students had released several desperate videos on social media, saying they have decided to undertake the potentially fatal journey to the Russian border, some 50km from where they are, sending shockwaves in New Delhi. They said they hope they would be picked up by Indian authorities from the Russian border.
The Indian Embassy had asked citizens to “immediately” leave the war-hit Ukrainian city of Kharkiv. India had Wednesday asked its nationals to leave the second-largest Ukrainian city urgently to three nearby places “even on foot”, while Russia promised to create “humanitarian corridors” for evacuation of Indians from the conflict zones
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