India has brought back “more than 15,920” of its citizens in 76 flights as part of the evacuation mission ‘Operation Ganga’ launched after Russia’s military aggression against Ukraine, officials said on Sunday. The Indian Embassy in Hungary suggested that the evacuation mission from the country is nearing completion as it begins the final phase of flights under operation.
India is repatriating its citizens from Romania, Poland, Hungary, Slovakia and Moldova after they crossed over from Ukraine to these countries through land border transit points. The first flight came back from Bucharest on 26 February carrying stranded Indians. Ukraine closed its airspace to civilian aircraft after Russia launched a military operation.
According to officials, around 2,500 Indians were evacuated in 13 flights in the last 24 hours. He said that seven flights are scheduled in the next 24 hours to bring back stranded Indians from Hungary, Romania and Poland.
There will be five flights from Budapest, one each from Razzo in Poland and Suceava in Romania. “Under Operation Ganga, so far 76 flights have brought back more than 15,920 Indians to India. Out of these 76 flights, 13 flights landed in the last 24 hours.
The Indian Embassy in Hungary posted an “important announcement” on Twitter, asking Indian students to report at designated contact points on their return to India. “Important Announcement: Embassy of India is starting the final phase of Operation Ganga Udaan today. All students who are staying in their own accommodation (other than those arranged by the Embassy) are requested to visit @Hungariacitycentre, Rakoczi Ut. Arrive at 90, Budapest between 10am and 12pm.
Separately, the Indian Embassy in Ukraine asked all Indian nationals who are still stranded in the conflict-torn country to fill up an online form on an urgent basis. “All Indian citizens who are still residing in Ukraine are requested to fill in the details contained in the attached Google Form on an urgent basis. Stay safe be strong,” it tweeted.
The information requested in the Google Form is name, email, phone number, address of current stay, passport details, gender and age. The embassy also asked to indicate the current location of Indians still stranded in Ukraine.
A list of places is provided in the form and option to select the location from the list. The places mentioned in the online form are Cherkasy, Chernihiv, Chernivtsi, Dnipropetrovsk, Donetsk, Ivano-Frankivsk, Kharkiv, Kherson, Khmelnitsky, Kirovograd, Kyiv, Luhansk, Lviv, Mykolaiv and Odessa.
The list also included Poltava, Rivne, Sumy, Ternopil, Vinitsya, Volyn, Zakarpattya, Zaporozhye and Zhytomyr. Officials said more than 21,000 Indians have so far left Ukraine since the consultations were issued a few weeks before the start of the conflict.
Of these, 199220 Indians have already reached India. Six consignments of humanitarian aid were earlier sent to Ukraine and on Sunday another tranche weighing six tonnes was sent by an IAF flight to Poland.
Officials said the control rooms of the Ministry of External Affairs as well as the control centers run by Indian embassies continue to function on a 24×7 basis. According to officials, the control room of the Ministry of External Affairs has made 12435 calls and 9026 e-mails till Sunday afternoon.
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