First Air India flight carrying 219 Indian evacuees from Ukraine lands at Mumbai

The first evacuation flight carrying 219 passengers from Ukraine, has landed in Mumbai's Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj International Airport. The first evacuation flight, Air India's AI1944, departed from the Romanian capital Bucharest on Saturday afternoon.

The evacuated Indians were welcomed by Union Minister Piyush Goyal. "Welcome back to the motherland! Glad to see the smiles on the faces of Indians safely evacuated from Ukraine at the Mumbai airport. Govt. led by PM Narendra Modi ji is working relentlessly to ensure the safety of every Indian," he tweeted.

'We'll not stop until all of them are back home': Piyush Goyal

"Since the beginning of this crisis, our main objective was to bring back each and every Indian stranded in Ukraine. 219 students have arrived here. This was the first batch, the second will reach Delhi soon. We'll not stop until all of them are back home," Goyal said.

A student, who arrived from Ukraine, said that the Indian government gave them hope. "A little problem at Romania's border. We faced no problem otherwise," the student said, adding that the situation is very difficult in Kharkiv.

An Air India Flight attendant said, "We are very happy to bring our students back home. The students were filled with joy once we landed here in Mumbai. Thanks to the Government of India for giving us this opportunity."

Foreign Secretary Harsh Vardhan Shringla had informed that around 16,000 Indian nationals, mostly students, were stranded in Ukraine. Before the closure of the Ukrainian airspace, Air India had operated a flight to the eastern European country's capital city Kyiv on February 22 that brought 240 people back to India.

The Ukrainian airspace has been closed for civil aircraft operations since Thursday morning and therefore, the evacuation flights are operating out of Bucharest and Budapest. 

Air India informed that it will operate more flights to Bucharest and Hungarian capital Budapest to evacuate Indians stranded in Ukraine.

Meanwhile, Mumbai Mayor Kishori Pednekar said that the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) will provide free services to all the students returning from Ukraine. The students will get free COVID-19 testing, vaccine, food and all other facilities, she said.