Mumbai: A flight from Budapest carrying 183 Indians stranded in Ukraine landed in Mumbai Thursday, an official said. An infant was among the passengers, the official said.
MoS Railways Raosaheb Patil Danve received passengers of the third evacuation flight from Budapest to Mumbai, as soon as the Air India Express Flight IX 1202 landed here around 5.30 am.
"Indian Railways have deployed a help desk. Any student who wants a train reservation to their respective native place can do so at the airport itself," said Danve. I have been asked by Prime Minister Narendra Modi to welcome you. There were around 17,000 Indians, including students, stranded there (in Ukraine) and the PM started Operation Ganga to evacuate them, Danve said, interacting with passengers, many of them students, inside the aircraft.
Meanwhile, an another flight carrying around 200 Indian nationals stranded in Ukraine reached Delhi from Romania on Thursday. The Indigo special flight departed from the Romanian capital Bucharest on Wednesday (local time) under Operation Ganga. Union Minister of State Rajeev Chandrasekhar received the Indian citizens on their arrival at Indira Gandhi International Airport. He interacted with the students.
External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar said nine flights took off on Thursday from Hungary, Romania, Slovakia and Poland.
"Nine flights have taken off today from Hungary, Romania, Slovakia and Poland. Includes IAF aircraft. 6 flights more are expected to depart shortly. Altogether, will bring back more than 3000 Indian nationals," tweeted Jaishankar. A total of 17,000 Indian nationals have left Ukraine since the advisories were issued and flights under Operation Ganga have been increased to facilitate the evacuation of remaining students stranded in Ukraine.
Around four to five thousand Indians have been brought home so far and the operation will continue to bring back those still stranded there to the country, said Patil Danve. An Air India Express flight carrying 182 Indians from Ukraine had landed in Mumbai from the Romanian capital Bucharest on Tuesday morning. That was the second evacuation flight operated to Mumbai from Bucharest to bring back Indians from war-ravaged Ukraine since February 27.
For the past few days, the Prime Minister has been chairing crucial meetings on the issue. Russian forces launched military operations in Ukraine on February 24, three days after Moscow recognized Ukraine's breakaway regions - Donetsk and Luhansk - as independent entities.
Several countries including the UK, the US, Canada, and the European Union have condemned Russia's military operations in Ukraine and imposed sanctions on Moscow. These countries have also promised Ukraine to help with military aid to fight Russia.
The US, Canada and European allies agreed to remove key Russian banks from the interbank messaging system, SWIFT which means Russian banks won't be able to communicate securely with banks beyond Russia's borders. President Putin has also signed a decree on special economic measures against the US and its allies.
