Over 2100 Indians flown out from Ukraine’s neighbours on Sunday

New Delhi: As many as 2135 Indians were brought back from the neighbouring nations of war-hit Ukraine on Sunday as a part of Operation Ganga, the Indian government said on Monday.

“Under ‘Operation Ganga’ to rescue Indian citizens, 2135 Indians have been brought back today by 11 special civilian flights from Ukraine’s neighbouring countries,” read a government statement.

“With this, more than 15 thousand 9 hundred Indians have been brought back since the special flights began on 22nd February, 2022,” read the statement.

With this, the number of Indians airlifted by 66 special civilian flights goes up to 13852.

Till date, the IAF has flown 11 sorties to bring back 2266 passengers, while taking over 26 tonnes of relief load to these countries, as part of the operation.

Among the special civilian flights today, nine landed in New Delhi while two reached Mumbai. There were six flights from Budapest, two each from Bucharest and Rzeszow, and one from Kosice.

“Tomorrow (Monday), 8 special flights are expected to operate from Budapest (5), Suceva (2) and Bucharest (1), bringing in more than 1500 Indians back home,” the statement said.

Indians stuck in Ukraine are being flown out from Ukraine’s neighbouring countries after being asked to evacuate the war-torn country and get to its borders. The Indian embassies have been continuously issuing alerts for Indian citizens.

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On Sunday, the Indian Embassy in Hungary sent out an urgent message, directing all Indians to get to Budapest in Hungary as soon as possible. The embassy said in a tweet that the Indian Embassy has begun the last phase of Operation Ganga and asked the students to reach Budapest at the earliest. Students were also asked to fill up a Google form with all their details like name, passport number, current location and so on.

With the situation deteriorating because of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, the Government of India is evacuating stranded citizens on a war footing. Prime Minister Narendra Modi has been constantly holding high level meetings to monitor the situation.

On Saturday, he held yet another meeting which was attended by several officials including External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar, Union Minister Piyush Goyal, NSA Ajit Doval, and Foreign Secretary Harsh Vardhan Shringla.

Agencies