Amid the Russia-Ukraine war crisis, the government of India has launched 'multi-pronged' ‘Operation Ganga’ to evacuate our citizens stranded in Ukraine. Foreign Secretary Harsh V Shringla has said the government will bear the complete cost of the evacuation process from Ukraine.
Due to the closing of Ukrainian airspace, the Indian evacuation flights are operating out of Romanian capital Bucharest and Hungarian capital Budapest. India is facilitating the evacuation of stranded Indians from Ukraine through its land border crossings with Romania, Hungary, Poland and Slovakia.
Shringla said the Indian Embassy in Kyiv and the Ministry of External Affairs had issued a number of adversities before the situation became worse in Ukraine. “4,000 of our nationals had left before the conflict, pursuant to these advisories. We estimated that about 15,000 citizens were left in Ukraine," he added.
Under the ‘Operational Ganga’ plan, the first Air India flight carrying 219 Indian evacuees from Ukraine had landed in the Mumbai airport from Bucharest on Saturday evening. While receiving the returnee, central minister Piyush Goyal said the government's main objective was to bring back each and every Indian stranded in Ukraine.
Total Indians evacuated so far
So far, a total of 469 Indian nationals have been evacuated from war-hit Ukraine, out of which 200 landed in Delhi on Sunday morning and 219 landed in Mumbai on Saturday evening. The third Air India flight with around 240 Indians on board has left for Delhi from the Hungarian capital Budapest. Notably, a fourth evacuation flight carrying 198 Indians from the Romanian capital Bucharest left for India on Sunday, External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar said.
‘Our sons, daughters will be brought back’
Prime Minister Narendra Modi today said that by running Operation Ganga, the Central Government are bringing back thousands of Indians home. “Our sons, daughters still stranded in Ukraine will be brought back. The government of India is working day and night for them. Wherever there is trouble, we left no stone unturned to bring our citizens back," PM Modi said in an election rally in Uttar Pradesh's Basti.
