A special flight from the Romanian capital Bucharest carrying Indian nationals stranded in Ukraine reached Delhi on Thursday.
Minister of State for External Affairs Meenakashi Lekhi received the passengers at Indira Gandhi International Airport on their arrival.
"The Government of India is trying to bring each and every citizen back to India. We welcome all the students who have arrived. I also want to thank all the teams involved in the safe evacuation of Indians. The students were thanking PM Narendra Modi," said Lekhi.
The Ministry of External Affairs, in close coordination with the Ministry of Civil Aviation, is making all efforts to bring the Indian students back to India at a fast pace.
Four Union Ministers -- Hardeep Singh Puri, Jyotiraditya M Scindia, Kiren Rijiju and Gen (Retd) V.K. Singh-- have gone to countries adjoining Ukraine to support and supervise evacuation operations. Indian civilian planes as well as Indian Air Force planes are regularly bringing back stranded Indian students.The Ministry of External Affairs said more than 7,400 persons are expected to be brought through special flights in the next two days. Further, 3,500 persons are expected to be brought back on Friday and over 3900 on March 5.
Russian forces launched military operations in Ukraine on February 24, three days after Moscow recognized Ukraine's breakaway regions - Donetsk and Luhansk - as independent entities.
Several countries including the UK, the US, Canada, and the European Union have condemned Russia's military operations in Ukraine and imposed sanctions on Moscow. These countries have also promised Ukraine to help with military aid to fight Russia.
The US, Canada and European allies agreed to remove key Russian banks from the interbank messaging system, SWIFT which means Russian banks won't be able to communicate securely with banks beyond Russia's borders. President Putin has also signed a decree on special economic measures against the US and its allies.
( With inputs from ANI )
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