First evacuation flight from Ukraine lands in Mumbai

The first evacuation flight carrying 219 passengers from Ukraine, has landed in Maharashtra's Mumbai. The plane had taken off from the Romanian capital Bucharest this afternoon.

Mumbai: The first evacuation flight carrying 219 passengers from Ukraine, has landed in Maharashtra's Mumbai. The plane had taken off from the Romanian capital Bucharest this afternoon. The evacuees were welcomed by Union Minister Piyush Goyal at the Mumbai airport.

"Since the beginning of this crisis, our main objective was to bring back each & every Indian stranded in Ukraine. 219 students have arrived here. This was the first batch, the second will reach Delhi soon. We'll not stop until all of them are back home," Goyal said while interacting with media at the airport.

"The first flight has landed. The second flight to Delhi is expected tomorrow morning. We are working to get our children to the borders in Ukraine. Indian embassy officials are taking them from the borders to airports of neighbouring countries," Goyal said in a statement.

External Affairs Minister Dr S. Jaishankar also took to Twitter to welcome the first batch of students evacuated from Ukraine, calling it the "First step of #OperationGanga." The EAM also informed that the second flight from Bucharest has taken off for Delhi with 250 Indian nationals.

Air India said AI1944 arrived from Bucharest in Mumbai at 7.50 PM on Saturday with 219 passengers. The airline also posted a short video showing the first batch of evacuees clapping in joy of returning to India.

The other two flights - AI1942 from Bucharest and AI1940 from Budapest - are scheduled to arrive with rescued citizens in Delhi on Sunday morning, senior government officials said, adding all three flights were sent from India on Saturday.

The Ukrainian airspace has been closed for civil aircraft operations since February 24 morning and therefore, the evacuation flights are operating out of Bucharest and Budapest. Around 16,000 Indians, mainly students, were stranded in Ukraine, Foreign Secretary Harsh Vardhan Shringla had said on February 24. Prior to the closure of the Ukrainian airspace, Air India had operated a flight to Ukraine's capital Kyiv on February 22 that brought 240 people back to India.

(With inputs from agency)