Ukraine crisis: Indians asked to leave Kyiv urgently; PM Modi asks IAF to join evacuation efforts

India has told its citizens to ‘leave Kyiv urgently today'. A tweet posted by the Indian Embassy in Ukraine read.

“Advisory to Indians in Kyiv- All Indian nationals including students are advised to leave Kyiv urgently today. Preferably by available trains or through any other means available.”

Meanwhile, Prime Minister Narendra Modi has asked the Indian Air Force (IAF) to evacuate Indians stranded in Ukraine due to the Russian military offensive against that country, sources said on Tuesday.

The IAF is likely to deploy several C-17 aircraft as part of Operation Ganga from Tuesday, they said.

Till now, only private Indian carriers were evacuating Indians from Romania and Hungary, countries with land borders with Ukraine on the western side, as the Ukrainian airspace had been shut since February 24.

India began evacuation of around 14,000 of its stranded citizens on February 26.

In order to scale up the ongoing evacuation efforts under Operational Ganga, PM Modi has called for the IAF to join the exercise, the sources said.

Leveraging the capacities of the IAF will ensure that more people can be evacuated in a shorter time frame, they noted.

The large C-17 aircraft will also help deliver humanitarian aid to war-hit Ukraine more efficiently, they mentioned.

ALSO WATCH: Ukraine crisis: should Americans be fearful of a nuclear war? Joe Biden answers