Air India’s first flight carrying 219 Indians who were stuck in Ukraine, landed in Mumbai at 7.50 pm on Saturday, PTI reported. The flight had departed from the Romanian capital of Bucharest in the afternoon.
After Ukraine closed its airspace for civilian aircraft following an attack from Russia, India is looking to evacuate its citizens from war-struck countries through land routes. Over 470 Indians had reached Bucharest on Friday through land route.
Union Minister Piyush Goyal welcomed the first batch of Indians to be evacuated from the war-hit Ukraine.
Another Air India flight that will conduct evacuation has departed from Delhi at 11.40 am and was scheduled to land in Bucharest on Saturday evening.
It is expected to return to the Delhi airport on early Sunday morning carrying 250 citizens, unidentified officials told PTI.
Meanwhile, multiple batches of Indians were evacuated from Ukraine through Hungary on Saturday evening. The Indian embassy in Hungary said in a tweet that the group of students entered Hungary through the Zahony crossing along the Ukrainian border, and were now on their way to the capital city of Budapest.
Earlier on Saturday, the Indian embassy in Kyiv said that citizens in Ukraine should avoid going to border posts without coordinating with Indian government officials. The embassy said that it was getting increasingly difficult for the officials to help Indians who were reaching border help desks without prior intimation.
The embassy issued the advisory in the context of rapidly escalating violence in the wake of Russia’s attack on Ukraine. In the early hours of Saturday, Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said that Russian troops may attempt to attack the capital city of Kyiv shortly.
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