Ukraine Crisis: IAF's First Evacuation Flight With 200 Indians Lands In Delhi

The Indian Air Force's first evacuation flight with 200 Indians from Romanian capital Bucharest landed at the Hindon air base here in the early hours of Thursday, sources said.

The first flight -- which was conducted using C-17 military transport aircraft -- landed in Delhi at 1.30 am.

Three more C-17 aircraft of the Indian Air Force (IAF) with approximately 300 evacuees from Ukraine will land at the Hindon airbase by 8 am on Thursday, sources said.

India has been evacuating its citizens through special flights from Ukraine's western neighbours such as Romania, Hungary and Poland as the Ukrainian airspace has been shut since February 24 due to the Russian military offensive.

The IAF planes are also coming from these neighbouring countries, sources said.

Minister of State for Defence Ajay Bhatt received the Indian evacuees of the first C-17 flight at the airbase, they said.

Approximately 8,000 Indians, mainly students, are stranded in Ukraine, Foreign Secretary Harsh Vardhan Shringla had said on Tuesday.

Four Union ministers have gone to Ukraine's western neighbours to facilitate the evacuation of Indian nationals.

Hardeep Singh Puri is in Hungary, Jyotiraditya Scindia is in Romania, Kiren Rijiju is in Slovakia and V K Singh is in Poland.

Flight From Bucharest Carrying 183 Indians Stranded In Ukraine Lands In Mumbai

 A flight from Bucharest carrying 183 Indians stranded in Ukraine landed in Mumbai Thursday, an official said.

An infant was among the passengers, the official said.

Union minister Raosaheb Danve welcomed passengers of the third evacuation flight from Bucharest to Mumbai, as soon as the Air India Express Flight IX 1202 landed here around 5.30 am.

I have been asked by Prime Minister Narendra Modi to welcome you. There were around 17,000 Indians, including students, stranded there (in Ukraine) and the PM started Operation Ganga to evacuate them, Danve said, interacting with passengers, many of them students, inside the aircraft.

Around four to five thousand Indians have been brought home so far and the operation will continue to bring back those still stranded there to the country, the minister said.

An Air India Express flight carrying 182 Indians from Ukraine had landed in Mumbai from the Romanian capital Bucharest on Tuesday morning.

That was the second evacuation flight operated to Mumbai from Bucharest to bring back Indians from war-ravaged Ukraine since February 27.