Operation Ganga: Special flight carrying 182 Indian citizens stranded in Ukraine reaches Mumbai

A special flight from Romania carrying 182 Indian nationals stranded in conflict-torn Ukraine reached Mumbai on Sunday.

The AirIndia Express flight had departed from the Romanian capital Bucharest on Saturday under Operation Ganga.

Union Minister of State Panchayat Raj Kapil Patil received the Indian citizens at Chhatrapati Shivaji International Airport on their arrival. He also interacted with the students coming from Ukraine.

Tensions have escalated following Russia's military action against Ukraine.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi chaired a high-level meeting on the Ukraine crisis on Saturday. The meeting was attended by Union Minister for External Affairs S Jaishankar, Foreign Secretary of India Harsh Vardhan Shringla and other top officials.

The Prime Minister has held several high-level meetings over the Ukraine crisis.

Earlier on Saturday, the Ministry of External Affairs said that over 13,300 people have returned to India so far under Operation Ganga from crisis-ridden Ukraine. The Ministry also informed that almost all Indians have left Kharkiv city in Ukraine and the main focus of the government is to evacuate citizens from the Sumy area as it is challenging amid ongoing violence and lack of transportation.

The government has also deployed 'special envoys' to five neighbouring countries bordering Ukraine to coordinate and oversee the evacuation process of Indian nationals.

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.

( With inputs from ANI )

Disclaimer: This post has been auto-published from an agency feed without any modifications to the text and has not been reviewed by an editor