He expressed deep condolences for death of Chandan Jindal who died of natural causes…reports Asian Lite News
Around 17,000 Indian nationals have left war-torn Ukraine’s borders since the Indian Embassy in Ukraine issued advisory, the Ministry of External Affairs said on Wednesday.
“We now estimate that nearly 17,000 Indian nationals have left Ukraine’s borders since our advisories were issued in the last week,” MEA spokesperson Arindam Bagchi said.
He said that the Embassy in Kiev has been asked to set up a temporary office in Lviv to facilitate border crossing by Indian nationals.
He also said that a mechanism has been established for issuing emergency certificates to those who lost their Indian passports which will also help many Indian students.
The MEA spokesperson said that “substantial segment of our embassy team is now at Lviv for this purpose. Location of the other segment of the embassy team is dynamic”.
“We are exploring options to reach eastern Ukraine to assist the evacuation of citizens who are stuck there. We are seeing if our teams can reach there, it’s not easy because the route is not open all the time,” he said.
He expressed deep condolences for death of Chandan Jindal who died of natural causes.
About urgent evacuation, Bagchi said that advisory issued by the Indian Embassy for nationals to leave Kharkiv by 6 p.m. local time was given on “basis of information from Russia”. He added that they should take any method to leave, including “on foot”.
“We have issued this advisory based on inputs from Russian side. We haven’t chosen the time. We haven’t chosen the location,” he said.
Meanwhile, an Air India Express flight from Bucharest, carrying 183 Indians from the war-torn Ukraine, landed in Mumbai on Thursday, officials said.
The flight IX-1202 with 183 passengers, including an infant, arrived at the Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj International Airport at around 5.40 a.m.
The evacuees were received by Union Minister of State for Railways Raosaheb Danve-Patil with flowers and words of solace as they trooped out lugging their belongings.
Outside the airport, the returnees were given a warm welcome by their families, relatives and friends anxiously awaiting their arrival since midnight.
This was the third flight of evacuees in the past six days to Mumbai and a few more are expected to be operated this week as part of the Operation Ganga launched by India.
While one flight from Bucharest is likely to reach here at 1.50 a.m. on Friday, another is scheduled from Budapest the same day at 8 a.m., said officials.
Till date, Danve-Patil said around 4,000-5,000 Indians, mostly students have safely returned home and the operations will continue till all those stuck there are brought back.