new Delhi: India has brought back “more than 15,920” of its citizens in 76 flights as part of the evacuation operation ‘Operation Ganga’ launched after Russia’s military action against Ukraine. This information was given by the officials on Sunday.
The Indian Embassy in Hungary indicated that the evacuation operation from the said country is nearing completion, as the last phase of flights are being started under this operation. India is bringing back its citizens via Romania, Poland, Hungary, Slovakia and Moldova. Indian nationals have reached these countries by crossing the land border points of Ukraine. The first flight brought back stranded Indians from Bucharest on 26 February.
Ukraine closed its airspace to civilian aircraft after Russia launched a military operation. According to officials, around 2,500 Indians were evacuated in 13 flights in the last 24 hours. He said that seven flights are scheduled in the next 24 hours to bring back stranded Indians from Hungary, Romania and Poland. There will be five flights from Budapest, one each from Razzo in Poland and Sucheva in Romania.
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“Under Operation Ganga, so far 76 flights have brought back more than 15,920 Indians to India,” an official said. Out of these 76 flights, 13 have landed in India in the last 24 hours. The Indian Embassy in Hungary posted an “important announcement” on Twitter, asking Indian students to report at designated contact points to return to India.
Indian Embassy in Hungary tweeted, “Important Information: Embassy of India is starting the last phase of evacuation flights under Operation Ganga today. Any students (other than the embassy) living on their own arrangements are requested to reach the UT 90 Rakozy Hungarian Center in Budapest from 10 am to 12 noon.” At the same time, the Indian Embassy in Ukraine asked all Indian nationals who are still stuck in the conflict-torn country to immediately fill up an online form.
The Google application form has asked to provide name, email, phone number, current whereabouts, passport details, gender and age. In the application, the embassy has also asked to tell the current status of Indians stranded in Ukraine. A list of destinations is given in the application and the option to choose from them is given.
The destinations listed in the online application are Cherkasy, Chernihiv, Chernivtsi, Dnipropetrovsk, Donetsk, Ivano-Frankivsk, Kharkiv, Kherson, Khmelnitsky, Kirovograd, Kyiv, Luhansk, Lviv, Mikolev and Odessa. Also included in the list are Poltava, Rivne, Sumy, Ternopil, Vinitsya, Volyn, Zakarpatya, Zaporozhye and Zhytomyr.
Officials said more than 21,000 Indians have so far left Ukraine since the consultations were issued a few weeks before the start of the conflict. Of these, 19,920 Indians have already reached India. Six consignments of humanitarian aid were earlier sent to Ukraine and on Sunday another consignment weighing six tonnes was sent to Poland by an IAF flight. (agency)