New Delhi: Tired but relieved, Indian citizens evacuated from war-torn Ukraine smiled and flashed victory signs as they emerged from the Indian Air Force (IAF) aircraft that took them back to the country late Thursday.
Since the early hours of Thursday, four Indian Air Force aircraft with the evacuated Indians have landed at the Hindon airbase in Uttar Pradesh’s Ghaziabad. IAF is conducting evacuation operations using C-17 Globemaster military transport aircraft.
India is evacuating its citizens from Ukraine’s neighboring countries Romania, Hungary and Poland through special flights as part of ‘Operation Ganga’ as Ukrainian airspace is closed since February 24 due to war by Russia.
Four evacuation flights of the IAF with 798 Indians came from the Romanian capital Bucharest, Hungary’s Budapest and the Polish city of Rezzo, according to the Ministry of Defense.
The first IAF flight carrying 200 people from Bucharest landed at 1.30 am on Thursday. Union Minister of State for Defense Ajay Bhatt greeted the students at the airbase.
Civil Aviation Minister Jyotiraditya Scindia said that the evacuation operation has been divided into four parts. “The first is to bring all our students from Ukraine to the neighboring country’s borders; The second is to enable them to cross the border into the neighboring country.” ANI report good He was quoted as saying.
“The third part is to bring them from the neighboring country’s border to the airports where they boarded, and the fourth is to take them safely to India,” he said.
ThePrint photojournalist Suraj Singh Bisht gives a glimpse from the Hindon airbase, when civilians, many of them students, were evacuated from an IAF aircraft after a harsh week between tanks and bombs.
