Union Minister Piyush Goyal welcomed the first batch of Indian evacuees who returned to the country from Ukraine as part of Operation Ganga.
Indian evacuees returning from Ukraine on Saturday | Twitter @MEAIndia
First batch of Indian nationals stranded in Ukraine returned to the country on Saturday. They were welcomed at the Mumbai airport by Union Minister Piyush Goyal.
The minister took to Twitter to post a video of himself with the evacuees. He wrote: “Welcome back to the motherland! Glad to see the smiles on the faces of Indians safely evacuated from Ukraine at the Mumbai airport.”
As per the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA), the first batch of evacuees comprising 219 Indian nationals returned to India after boarding a flight to Mumbai from Bucharest. They were able to travel to the Ukrainian-Romanian border after Russian troops launched a military offensive on February 24.
#FlyAI: Bucharest to Mumbai, Air India flight AI 1944 arrived at Mumbai around 7.50 pm with 219 passengers today. #Happiness and Relief on their faces on landing in #India safely pic.twitter.com/ru7imz5eZx
— Air India (@airindiain) February 26, 2022
External Affairs Minister (EAM) Dr S Jaishankar also took to Twitter to welcome Indians, including students, who returned to the country on Saturday.
“Welcome back. First step of #OperationGanga,” Jaishankar wrote on Twitter.
— Dr. S. Jaishankar (@DrSJaishankar) February 26, 2022
A second flight from Bucharest has also taken off for Delhi with 250 Indian nationals on board.
Foreign Secretary Harsh Vardhan Shringla had said at a press conference on Thursday that there are nearly 20,000 Indian nationals, including students, still stranded in Ukraine.
The Indian Embassy in Kyiv has been issuing regular advisories to all Indian nationals who are taking shelter in the face of the Russian invasion.
India has also stated its plan to evacuate Indians from Ukraine through neighbouring countries such as Poland and Romania.