The four Union Ministers will leave for Kyiv tonight to assist in evacuation efforts in countries bordering Ukraine
India has responded to Ukraine’s request to send humanitarian aid, including medical supplies, to war-torn Ukraine. The government lays out the plan for determining the quantity of support to be sent. Teams from the Indian embassy are also set to leave for Kyiv tonight to help in the evacuation efforts of Ukrainian countries. The decision to send humanitarian aid to Ukraine was taken yesterday evening at a meeting chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Four Union ministers, Hardeep Singh Puri, Jyotiraditya Scindia, Kiren Rijiju and General VK Singh, will be overseeing the evacuation operations in Hungary, Romania, Moldova, Poland and Slovenia. The decision to send the ministers to expedite evacuation was also decided at this meeting. India has agreed on Moldova as a suitable site for evacuating Indian nationals from Ukraine.
India has been involved in returning Indian nationals from war-torn Ukraine. Through the government’s Operation Ganga, seven flights have flown in Indian nationals from Ukraine. While Ukraine has shut its airspace to deal with the Russian invasion, the government of India has been actively involved in ferrying Indian citizens to Romania for temporary refuge. Once the Indians reach the Romanian border, they are taken to the capital Bucharest, a nine-hour drive. From Bucharest, Air India flights are being arranged for Indians to take them directly to India. The Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) informs that the flights had brought back almost 1400 Indian nationals from Ukraine. While four of these flights took off from Bucharest, two took off from Budapest. MEA spokesperson Arindam Bagchi confirmed, “Evacuation efforts on… The situation on the ground continues to be complex and fluid, some of them quite concerning, but we have been able to accelerate our evacuation process.”
Mr Bagchi further informed that nearly 8000 Indian nationals had left Ukraine since the issue of an advisory in Kyiv by the Indian Embassy. The MEA spokesperson has added that in the next 24 hours, three more flights are supposed to return more stranded Indians from Eastern Europe. He said, “Flights are not the constraint; the main focus is to ensure Indians cross the border and reach a safe place.” Mr Bagchi also informed that Indian embassies in Kyiv, Bucharest, Budapest and Warsaw have been facilitating the evacuation by managing buses.
He advised Indian students to take shelter in nearby cities, recommending them to inch towards the border only after having informed and consulted the Indian embassies in the respective areas.
Edited By : Atreyee Chakraborty
Published By : K. Bindhiya Prarthana
