Air India: India begins evacuating citizens from Ukraine
A special flight left for Kyiv on Tuesday morning to evacuate Indian nationals stranded amid an escalating crisis between Russia and Ukraine.
Air India’s Dreamliner B-787 aircraft with a capacity of over 200 seats have been deployed.
This comes as 150,000 Russian troops are positioned close to Ukraine’s borders.
Russia’s Vladmir Putin has denied planning to attack Ukraine but the US believes he will soon.
India has told the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) that the safety and security of its nationals are essential.
“More than 20,000 Indian students and nationals live and study in different parts of Ukraine, including in its border areas. The well-being of Indians is of priority to us,” India’s Permanent Representative to United Nations, TS Tirumurti said.
The first of the three flights from Ukraine will land in the capital Delhi on Tuesday night.
The Embassy of India in Kyiv issued an advisory on the special flights on Monday, tweeting that additional flights are being organized “in view of the continued high level of tensions and uncertainties of the current situation in Ukraine”.
The Indian government had removed restrictions on flights to and from Ukraine earlier this month.
The move from Delhi comes amid increasing tensions in the region. According to the US, Russia has moved more than 150,000 troops close to Ukraine’s borders, both in Russia and Belarus.
Russia says it has no plans to invade Ukraine but on 18 February, US President Joe Biden said he believed Mr Putin had decided to attack “in the coming days”.
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