Flight Carrying More Than 200 Indian Students From Ukraine Takes Off From Romania

Russia Attacks Ukraine Latest Updates Day 3: Union minister of external affairs S Jaishankar on Saturday said that the first flight from Romania bringing back Indian students and citizens is en route to Mumbai. Pictures accessed by CNNNews18 and News18 showed students inside the Air India flight ready to return from Ukraine whose cities are bearing the brunt of a Russian aggression.

“Regarding evacuation of Indian nationals from Ukraine, we are making progress. Our teams are working on the ground round the clock. I am personally monitoring. The first flight to Mumbai with 219 Indian nationals has taken off from Romania,” Jaishankar tweeted. In another tweet, he thanked the Georgian foreign minister Bogdan Aeruscu for his cooperation.

Due to Russia’s sudden announcement declaring a war on Ukraine, thousands of Indian students and citizens were stuck in Ukraine. The flight which is currently in Bucharest is bringing back 219 students to Mumbai. The flight is expected to land tonight at the Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj International Airport (CSMIA). The CSMIA authorities have made a special corridor for Indians arriving from Ukraine later today. If the students are not able to show a vaccination certificate or an RT-PCR negative test report, the airport authorities will bear the cost of their tests.

The Union minister also thanked the Romanian government for helping in the evacuation of the students. “The Indian embassies in Ukraine and Romania are evacuating us from Ukraine to move us back to India. Since the time we landed here, the Indian embassy in Romania has been taking care of everything,” a student speaking to news agency ANI said.

The MEA along with repatriation flights is also making other arrangements to bring back Indian citizens home. Several MEA officials remain in Hungary, Poland, Slovakia and Romania to help students arriving to those countries via the land border.

However, an earlier release by the embassy in Kyiv urged students to remain where they are and not rush to the borders before prior intimation. Helplines have been set up and phone numbers have been shared in order to further smoothen the evacuation process.

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