Indian government has arranged four Air India flights to fly back Indians stranded in Ukraine.
Three of these flights will fly from the Romanian capital of Bucharest one from Hungary’s capital Budapest. These flights will operate on Friday and Saturday. The Indian citizens will be taken there by road from Ukraine.
The move to evacuate Indians through the western borders of Ukraine follows assurances from President Putin to PM Modi that Russian forces have been instructed to ensure their safety. The timing will be decided as the evacuees reach the eastern European capitals.
PM Modi will review the situation in a meeting of the Cabinet Committee of Security on Saturday, sources said.
These flights, chartered by the government which is bearing the cost, mark the resumption of evacuation of nearly 16,000 Indians stranded in war-torn Ukraine. By Friday evening, 200 Indians from western Ukraine had been taken to Romania through Suceava border crossing.
The arrival of Indians in Romania marked a breakthrough for government’s efforts to bring Indian nationals safely after the Russian assault which had resulted in the closure of the airspace and destruction of runways. The first evacuation flight from Mumbai, en route to Bucharest, took off at 3 am. However, the special flight scheduled to depart from Delhi for Bucharest is likely to fly out around 10: 30 am, as the situation in the war theatre is very fluid. “Not only is Ukrainian airspace declared restricted for civilian flights, but also airstrips in the country have been bombed. Poland was the closest to Ukraine from the evacuation point of view but there were logistical issues,” a source said.
Accordingly, on Friday four buses – clearly marked by Indian flags to show that they are ferrying Indian students so that they are not mistaken for defence personnel – ferried the first batch of evacuees from Ukraine to Romania via the Suceava border crossing. Indian diplomats at Suceava will facilitate onward travel to Bucharest for the journey to India.
-Agencies