After a few harrowing weeks, Indian students stranded in eastern Ukraine's Sumy finally started arriving in India on March 11. Emotional scenes were witnessed at the airport in Delhi as teary-eyed parents received their children.
With Russian forces having surrounded Sumy, and shelling and street fights being common, evacuation had proven to be extremely difficult.
In SOS videos, students in Sumy had showed how they were melting ice to get water, and how they were running out of food, as supply of essentials was halted due to the war.
The Indian government had estimated that around 700 students were stuck in Sumy, and rescuing them had become one of the major objectives of the Operation Ganga evacuation exercise.
The returning students thanked Red Cross, along with the Indian government and diplomats, for their safe return.