A second flight is also scheduled to take off from India to evacuate Indian nationals from Ukraine.
Mumbai: India’s first evacuation flight carrying 219 Indian nationals from war-torn Ukraine landed in Maharashtra’s Mumbai on Saturday evening.
The flight took off from Bucharest in Romania earlier today as Ukrainian airspace has been closed to all types of air movement.
A second flight is also scheduled to take off from India to evacuate Indian nationals from Ukraine. Another batch of Indian students has entered Hungary at the Zahony crossing from the Ukrainian side, traveling to Budapest to return to India on an Air India flight.
Union Minister Piyush Goyal was present at the Mumbai airport to welcome the Indian nationals evacuated safely from Ukraine.
While talking to the media, he said, “Since the beginning of this crisis, our main objective was to bring back every Indian stranded in Ukraine. 219 students have arrived here. This was the first batch and the second batch will reach Delhi soon.”
An Air India flight attendant told the media, “We are very happy to have our students back home. The students jumped with joy as they landed here in Mumbai. Thanks to Indian Government for giving us this opportunity.”
Akanksha Rawat, a student who returned from Ukraine, said, “I was really scared but thanks to the Indian government, we reached safely. We were the first to be saved. The government acted within a few days.”
Amid the current Ukraine-Russia crisis, the Indian Embassy in Kiev has advised Indian citizens against visiting any border posts without prior coordination with government officials at border post.