Close to 16k Indians brought back from Ukraine under special ops: Centre

ByHT Correspondent, Hindustan Times, New Delhi

Updated on: Mar 07, 2022 06:01 am IST

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India has flown back more than 15,900 citizens from Ukraine’s neighbouring countries, bringing home 2,135 persons on Sunday by 11 special flights through its Operation Ganga, the civil aviation ministry said in a statement.

India has flown back more than 15,900 citizens from Ukraine’s neighbouring countries, bringing home 2,135 persons on Sunday by 11 special flights through its Operation Ganga, the civil aviation ministry said in a statement.

Indian students wait in a bus to leave for their respective places at IGI Airport after being evacuated from war-hit Ukraine, in New Delhi on Sunday. (ANI)

“More than 15,900 Indians have been brought back since the special flights began on 22nd February, 2022,” the statement said. As many as 13,852 Indians have been flown back by 66 special flights till date, the ministry said.

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“Indian Air Force has flown 10 sorties to bring back 2,056 passengers. As part of Operation Ganga, IAF has also flown 26 tonnes of relief load to these countries,” a ministry official said, requesting anonymity.

To evacuate Indian students stranded in the war zone, the Indian government on February 28 sent ministers Hardeep Puri, Jyotiraditya Scindia, Kiren Rijiju and VK Singh to Ukraine’s neighbouring countries to coordinate evacuation. The government also sought help from the Air Force that has been flying C-17 Globemaster transport aircraft to speed up the process.

Among special civilian flights that were operated on Sunday, nine landed in Delhi and two in Mumbai. “There were six flights from Budapest, two from Bucharest, two from Rzeszow and one from Kosice,” the ministry official added.

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Eight special flights are expected to operate on Monday, officials said. “These include five flights from Budapest, two from Suceva and one from Bucharest. These flights are expected to bring back more than 1,500 Indians back home,” a ministry official said.

Private carrier IndiGo will be operating around 52% of the total 64 flights commissioned till March 7.

“We take pride in bringing back over 7,180 Indian citizens (till Sunday) in our mission to repatriate them from the crisis in Ukraine,” said Wolfgang Prock-Schauer, Indigo’s president and chief operating officer.