AI Flight To Bring Back Indians; Putin Orders More Troops: Know All About Russia-Ukraine Crisis

Amid heightened tensions in Ukraine, Air India's special ferry flight has left for Kyiv from India today morning to bring back the Indian nationals, news agency ANI tweeted.

The Dreamliner B-787 aircraft deployed for the special operation with a capacity of over 200 seats. The special flight from Ukraine will land in Delhi tonight. The other two flights of Air India are scheduled for February 24 and 26. The flights will take off from Boryspil International Airport and bookings are open through Air India booking offices, website, call centre and authorised travel agents.

Air India will operate 3 flights between India-Ukraine (Boryspil International Airport) on Feb 22, Feb 24 & Feb 26, 2022. Booking is open through Air India booking offices, website, call centre & authorised travel agents: Air India pic.twitter.com/5XAFfspdvj

¡ª ANI (@ANI) February 18, 2022

India's advisory to its citizens

As tensions escalated between the NATO countries and Russia over the Ukraine crisis, the Indian embassy in Kyiv issued a fresh advisory in which it also asked all the Indian students to leave that country temporarily.

On Sunday, India asked the family members of Embassy officials in Ukraine ¡ª as well as students and citizens whose stay is not vital ¡ª to leave the eastern European nation amid its rising tensions with Russia. The directions to students and other nationals came from the Indian Embassy in Kyiy on Sunday. This is its second advisory in a week and has a stronger tone than the previous one ¡ª citing ¡°high levels¡± of tensions and uncertainties.

File Photo

Ukraine President's comments

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy in a statement accused Russia of wrecking peace efforts and violating the sovereignty and territorial integrity of his country. Zelenskiy has said that while Ukraine is committed to a ¡°peaceful and diplomatic path¡±, it won¡¯t give up its land. ¡°¡­we are on our own land, we are not afraid of anything and anybody, we owe nothing to no one, and we will give nothing to no one,¡± the Ukrainian President said.

Putin recognises independence of rebel Ukrainian territories

Meanwhile, Russian President Vladimir Putin recognised the independence of two separatist regions of Ukraine -- Donetsk and Lugansk -- in the early hours of Tuesday. After his televised address to the nation, Putin also officially signed friendship and aid agreements with the Russia-backed separatist leaders of Ukraine.

Putin claimed that Ukraine's admission to the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (Nato) would be a direct threat to Russia's security. Presence of Nato training centres in Ukraine would amount to Nato military bases, Putin said.

Reuters

The announcement comes after Putin convened an emergency meeting of the Russian Security Council where he talked about recognising the "independence" of Russia-backed separatist regions in eastern Ukraine.

Following Putin's statement, Ukrainian President Zelensky convened a meeting of the National Security and Defense Council of Ukraine.

In a tweet, Zelensky said, "Given the statements made at the meeting of the Security Council of the Russian Federation, I held urgent consultations with Emmanuel Macron and Olaf Scholz and convened the National Security and Defence Council."

Standoff continues

Russia on Sunday rescinded earlier pledges to pull tens of thousands of its troops back from Ukraine's northern border, a move that US leaders said put Russia another step closer to launching what they said was the planned invasion of Ukraine.

Russia's action extends what it said were military exercises, originally set to end Sunday, that brought an estimated 30,000 Russian forces to Belarus, Ukraine's neighbour to the north. They are among at least 150,000 Russian troops now deployed outside Ukraine's borders, along with tanks, warplanes, artillery and other war materiel.

Putin orders troops into Ukraine rebel regions.

After weeks massing troops around Ukraine, Russia says it now recognises the rebel-held Donetsk and Lugansk regions as 'independent' - paving the way for the deployment of a potential invasion forcehttps://t.co/etKiRbFisQ pic.twitter.com/OVvkhTlqYp

¡ª AFP News Agency (@AFP) February 22, 2022

The continued deployment of the Russian forces in Belarus raised concern that they could be used to sweep down on the Ukrainian capital, Kyiv, a city of about 3 million people less than a three-hour drive away.

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