The first evacuation flight, since the Russia-Ukraine war broke out, arrived in India carrying over 200 nationals from the war-torn country.
The flight took off from Ukraine's neighbouring country Romania as Ukrainian airspace is closed, creating more hurdles in evacuation. The flight from Bucharest, carrying 219 passengers, landed in Mumbai at around 7:50 pm on February 26.
The batch of evacuees was received by Union minister Piyush Goyal. India's external affairs minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar called the arrival of the flight the first step of "Operation Ganga".
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The foreign ministry has been facilitating the travel of Indians from Ukraine to its neighbouring countries via land border crossings, from where they can take evacuation flights to India.
Minister Goyal asked the passengers to assure their colleagues back in Ukraine that they would be rescued soon.
Mumbai mayor Kishori Pednekar was also at the airport and promised help and free facilities to the evacuees, like Covid tests, vaccines, and food.