Flight carrying 219 Indians evacuated from Ukraine lands in Mumbai

New Delhi: India on Saturday evacuated 219 people as part of its mission to bring Indians from war-hit Ukraine. The flight took off from neighbouring Romania, as the Ukrainian airspace has been closed for civil aircraft operations, and landed in Mumbai at 7:50 pm.

"These are our children who are coming back to their homeland. So we as BMC are doing all the preparation for them. If they want to go anywhere, their testing, vaccination, food, anything, we will be bearing their expenses," said Mumbai Mayor Kishori Pednekar.

"Welcome back to the motherland!" tweeted Union minister Piyush Goyal, who was in Mumbai to welcome the returning students.

External Affairs minister S Jaishankar, who said he is personally monitoring the evacuation efforts, also tweeted saying this is the first step in the evacuation mission titled "Operation Ganga".

Earlier in the day, Prime Minister Narendra Modi spoke with Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and conveyed India's deep concern for the safety and security of Indian citizens, including students, present in Ukraine. He sought facilitation by Ukrainian authorities to expeditiously and safely evacuate them.

The distance between Kyiv and the Romanian border checkpoint is approximately 600 km and it takes anywhere between eight hours to 11 hours to cover it by road. The Indian embassy in Ukraine on Friday said it was working to establish evacuation routes from Romania and Hungary.

Air India will operate more flights on Saturday to Bucharest and Hungarian capital Budapest to evacuate Indians stranded in Ukraine.

"Whenever in life you feel things are becoming difficult, things are not moving, remember this day, February 26, and everything will be fine." This is what the Indian Ambassador to Romania, Rahul Shrivastava, told the Indian students on board the first evacuation flight from Bucharest just before it took off to Mumbai on Saturday.

The Indians reached Romania from Ukraine via the Suceava border crossing as part of a coordinated evacuation mission by the Ministry of External Affairs and Indian embassies in Ukraine and Romania.

In his two-minute address, Shrivastava urged the students to convey to their stranded friends whenever they talk to them that the entire Indian government team is working "day and night" to evacuate everyone from Ukraine. The envoy, a 1999-batch Indian Foreign Service (IFS) official, said India's mission is not complete till it evacuates the last Indian citizen from Ukraine.

He further added: "Our mission is not complete till we have taken the last person to India out of Ukraine. Wishing you a very safe journey back home."

In his address through the aircraft's passenger address (PA) system, Shrivastava also thanked Air India and the flight's crew members and wished all of them a very safe journey.

Meanwhile, Indians who were evacuated and brought to the Romanian capital Bucharest praised Indian officials for "taking care of everything", while many others still stranded in bunkers complained that no help has been forthcoming.

The Indian embassy in Ukraine has advised its citizens not to move to any of the border posts without coordination with its officials. Thousands of Indians have been stranded in the country and are desperately seeking a way out.

"The situation at various border checkpoints is sensitive and the Embassy is working continuously with our Embassies in our neighbouring countries for coordinated evacuation of our citizens," the Indian embassy in Ukraine tweeted on Saturday morning.

The Embassy said it's finding it "increasingly difficult" to help Indian nationals who reach border checkpoints without prior intimation.