Over 15,920 Indians brought back from Ukraine under Operation Ganga

India has so far evacuated over 15,290 of its citizens from Ukraine, with nearly 2,500 of them being flown back home in the last 24 hours, although a few hundred still remained stranded in the warzones of the nation.

The Centre operated 76 flights from cities in Romania, Hungary, Slovak Republic and Poland to Mumbai and Delhi ever since it launched ‘Operation Ganga’ to evacuate its citizens from Ukraine, which came under attack from Russia on February 24. Altogether 13 flights from Budapest, Bucharest, Kosice and Rzeszow arrived in Mumbai and Delhi with evacuees from Ukraine in the past 24 hours.

Also Read: PM Modi attributes Operation Ganga success to India’s growing influence

Two groups of Indians, mostly students, who had been moved out of from war-torn Kharkiv a few days back on short notice and gathered at nearby Pisochyn, safely reached Ukraine’s borders with Poland and Romania on Sunday, the Embassy of India in Kyiv informed. All Indians had moved out of Pisochyn by Saturday.

Delhi is in touch with both Russia and Ukraine to make arrangements for evacuating nearly 700 Indian citizens stranded in Sumy. The Red Cross Ukraine provided water and other essential supplies as humanitarian assistance to stranded Indian students at Sumy in coordination with Indian World Forum. A source in Delhi said that efforts were being made to evacuate them safely out of Sumy.

Also Read: Indian embassy in Hungary asks nationals to reach Hungaria City Centre

Seven more aircraft, including one C-17 of the Indian Air Force, are scheduled to fly from Budapest, Rzeszow and Suceava with evacuees from Ukraine and land in Mumbai and Delhi over the next 24 hours.

A source in Delhi said that over 21,000 Indians had come out of Ukraine since the issuance of the first advisory in January and 19,920 of them had already returned to the country.

The Embassy of India in Kyiv asked all Indians still left in Ukraine to register with it by filling up an online form.

The MEA control room, as well as the control centres operated by the Indian embassies, continue to operate on 24x7 basis, officials said.

The MEA control room has attended to 12,435 calls and 9026 e-mails till Sunday afternoon, according to the officials.

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