IAF flight with 119 Indians lands in Delhi from Bucharest
New Delhi: An Indian Air Force (IAF) flight with 119 Indians and 27 foreigners landed at Hindon air base here from Romanian capital Bucharest on Thursday morning, sources said.
These Indians and foreigners were stranded in Ukraine due to the Russian military offensive that began on February 24, they mentioned.
This was the 17th flight that the IAF has operated to evacuate people stranded in Ukraine.
India has been evacuating its citizens from war-torn Ukraine's neighbouring countries such as Romania, Hungary, Slovakia and Poland as the Ukrainian airspace has been shut since February 24.
The IAF flight -- which was operated on a C-17 military transport aircraft -- landed in Delhi around 5.40 am on Thursday, sources said.
Minister of State for External Affairs Rajkumar Ranjan Singh received the Indians and foreigners at the air base, they said. Meanwhile, to bring back the last big group of 600 students evacuated from the northeastern Ukrainian city of Sumy, India will operate three flights on Thursday.
The students had boarded a special train from Lviv for Poland. They reached Poland on Thursday.
The students reached Lviv in western Ukraine from Poltava on another special train.
According to the details shared by the students with the news agency, three flights will be operated between 4.30 pm and 6.30 pm (local time) from the Rzeszow airport in Poland to bring them back.
The first flight at 4.30 pm (9 pm IST) is for first, second and third year students. The second flight at 5.30 pm (10.30 pm IST) is for fourth and fifth year students and the third at 6.30 pm (11.30 pm IST) is for students with pets, fifth and sixth year students and for any other students who may have been left behind.
"We have reached Poland, from here we are expected to take the flight for India," said Jisna Jiji, a 25-year-old medical student.
Covering hundreds of miles across Ukraine, using multiple means of transport, the students were evacuated from the war-hit east European country after their two weeks of excruciating stay in beleaguered Sumy.
The Indian government is carrying out the most delicate and challenging evacuation exercise under Operation Ganga to help stranded Indians leave Ukraine.
The operation to evacuate the 600 students from Sumy began on Tuesday morning.
The Indian nationals were taken from Sumy in a convoy of 13 buses escorted by the International Committee of the Red Cross to Poltava, Anshad Ali, a student coordinator, said.
The students endured a strenuous journey to escape the war-hit region. They were evacuated in the second attempt from Sumy, which has been witnessing heavy shelling and intense gunfire ever since the Russian offensive on Ukraine began last month.
