THREE MORE AI JETS
are stranded in Ukraine as of now. “You know it is an extremely sensitive situation there (Ukraine). In this situation, we are talking with each Indian national, including students, through telecommunications,” he said. “We will bring them back as soon as possible,” he said.
The Union minister also spoke to the students on their return from Bucharest and assured safety of the people who are yet to be evacuated.
“I know you all have been through a very, very difficult time, a very, very trying time. But know this that the PM is with you at every step, the Indian government is with you at every step, and 130 crore Indians are with you at every step,” he told the returnees.
“PM Sh @narendramodi Ji, along with all the government agencies are working round the clock to ensure every Indian is brought back home quick & safe. #Operationganga,” Scindia tweeted later in the day.
Mamgaim said her scheduled flight to Delhi was on February 24, but the same day Ukraine closed its airspace for commercial flight operations. “I was on a train to Kyiv airport when I got to know about it. Though our college helped us get back to the premises and even cross the Ukrainian border, it was a situation I have never seen before and I wish that I never get to face it again,” she told HT.
Relieved at her safe return, she said she was worried for her friends still stuck at the border of the European country. “When I was there, around 250 of us were awaiting our turn to enter Romania, but now there is a chaos at the Ukrainian border and thousands have gathered, waiting to return to India. I have been receiving calls from their parents and all this is making me anxious,” she said.following the Russian military offensive against Ukraine, India has brought back a total of 907 stranded citizens from that country since Saturday, when the first evacuation flight from Bucharest with 219 people on board landed in Mumbai under Operation Ganga.
Only 24 hours ago, most of these students were hiding in their university hostels, even as sounds of airstrikes and gunfiring rattled cities in Ukraine. For parents of some of these students, it was a miracle of sorts to see their children return safely.
“The last few days have been tough on all parents. It was getting tough to sleep, knowing our child is stuck out there and there is a war raging on,” said Brijesh Tyagi, who came from Yamunanagar to pick up his daughter. Diya Devgun, a firstyear MBBS student at the Uzhhorod National Medical University, said while the impact of the war was yet to reach the city in Western Ukraine, the threat of invasion loomed for weeks. “My father had booked a flight for February 27 a couple of weeks in advance after it seemed like Russia may attack. But the attack happened before we had anticipated and all flights were cancelled. As fate would have it I am safely back in my country on the same date,” she said. A trio of firstyear students from the same university in Uzhhorod — Meraj Ahmed, Mohammad Izhar and Moin Khan — were among the 240 students who were ferried on a bus to neighbouring Budapest, from where the Air India flight AI1940 rescued them.