The first evacuation flight carrying 219 Indian nationals from Ukraine has landed in the Mumbai airport from Bucharest on Saturday evening. While receiving the returnee, central minister Piyush Goyal said, “Since the beginning of this crisis, our main objective was to bring back each and every Indian stranded in Ukraine.”
He further said on Twitter, Welcome back to the motherland! Glad to see the smiles on the faces of Indians safely evacuated from Ukraine at the Mumbai airport. The government led by PM Narendra Modi is working relentlessly to ensure safety of every Indian.
“The plane had taken off from the Romanian capital Bucharest this afternoon”, said Piyush Goyal.
“Since the beginning of this crisis, our main objective was to bring back each and 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,” said Goyal
Urging the returnees to speak to their friends, he said, “Government is working in mission mode to ensure safety of our citizens. The Minister said that PM Narendra Modi has spoken with the Ukrainian President and stressed about the safety of Indian citizens. The Russians have also promised to help evacuate all Indians.”
Earlier in the day, External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar took to Twitter to say that AI1944 flight with “219 Indian nationals has taken off from Romania”.
“Regarding evacuation of Indian nationals from Ukraine, we are making progress. Our teams are working on the ground round the clock. I am personally monitoring,” he added.
Meanwhile, two more Air India evacuation flights — one for Bucharest and one for Hungarian capital Budapest — departed from Delhi earlier today.
Indian nationals who reached the Ukraine-Romania border and the Ukraine-Hungary border by road were taken by Indian government officials to Bucharest and Budapest, respectively, so that they could be evacuated on these Air India flights, they said.
The second evacuation flight AI1942 and the third evacuation flight AI1940 are scheduled to return to the Delhi airport on Sunday morning from Bucharest and Budapest, respectively.