Happy Homecoming As Air India Flight Carrying 219 Students Stuck In Ukraine Lands In Mumbai

Ending days of uncertainty and anguish 219 more Indian students who were stuck in Ukraine have returned to the safety of their motherland.

The Air India AI1943 which took off from the Romanian capital Bucharest reached Mumbai on Saturday evening with 219 evacuees onboard.

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They were the first batch of Indians evacuated from the war zone after the repatriation attempts were temporarily called off on Thursday.

They had reached Romania from Ukraine via the Suceava border crossing as part of a coordinated evacuation mission by the Ministry of External Affairs and Indian embassies in Ukraine and Romania.

Around 16,000 Indians, mainly students, were stranded in Ukraine, Foreign Secretary Harsh Vardhan Shringla had said on February 24.

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Following the closure of the Ukrainian airspace, India on Friday managed to set up camp offices in Lviv and Chernivtsi towns in western Ukraine to facilitate the transit of Indians to Hungary, Romania and Poland.

India also positioned teams of officials at Zahony border post in Hungary, Krakowiec as well as Shehyni-Medyka land border points in Poland, Vysne Nemecke in the Slovak Republic and Suceava transit point in Romania to coordinate the exit of Indian nationals from Ukraine.

India is trying to evacuate its nationals through Ukraine's land borders with Hungary, Poland, Slovakia and the Ukrainian government closed the country's airspace following the Russian military offensive.

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Earlier, the Indian Ambassador to Romania, Rahul Shrivastava had said assured the students that the entire Indian government team is working "day and night" to evacuate everyone from Ukraine and added that the mission is not complete till the last Indian citizen is brought to safety.

The Indian Embassy in Ukraine had issued a new advisory to those stuck in the country.

It had asked those in the eastern part of Ukraine to continue to remain in their current places of residence and?stay indoors or in shelters as much as possible.

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"All Indian Citizens in Ukraine are advised to not move to any of the border posts without prior coordination with the government of India officials at the border posts (helpline numbers established) and the emergency numbers of the embassy of India in Kyiv," the embassy said.

It said the situation at various border checkpoints is sensitive and the embassy is working continuously with the Indian missions in the neighbouring countries for coordinated evacuation of the citizens.

"Embassy is finding it increasingly difficult to help the crossing of those?Indian nationals who reach border checkpoint?without prior intimation," it said in the advisory.

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