Last batch of Indian students return home from war-hit Ukraine

Ashraf Padanna, Correspondent 

India’s Foreign Minister S Jaishankar thanked countries and agencies that helped complete one of the largest war-time evacuation missions as the last batch of its citizens stranded in Ukraine reached home on Friday.

“We are thankful to all those who facilitated its objectives,” he said in a post on Twitter thanking the volunteers, non-government organisations and countries neighbouring Ukraine where they reached before boarding flights back home.

“Our particular gratitude to the authorities in Ukraine and Russia as well as the Red Cross for the evacuation assistance. Ukraine’s neighbours-Romania, Hungary, Poland, Slovakia and Moldova-gave us exceptional support.”

Delhi has airlifted some 18,500 citizens, mostly medical students, who wished to leave the war-ravaged European nation and fled to the neighbouring countries.

The last batch comprised 600 students evacuated from the besieged city of Sumy.

An Indian student evacuated from Ukraine meets her family upon arrival at the Indira Gandhi International Airport in New Delhi. AP

“We are grateful to NGOs, individual volunteers, corporates, our airlines and the Indian Air Force who worked so tirelessly in this exercise,” Jaishankar said.

The Indian embassy in Warsaw said 600 Indians evacuated from Sumy flew out in three special flights out of Poland - “the last of the Op Ganga flights!”

Parents of these students were waiting at the airport to receive them with bouquets and hugs and many wept as they could not hold back their emotions.

The evacuation drive, codenamed Operation Ganga, was launched on Feb.26, two days after Russian troops invaded Ukraine, using both civilian and military aircraft.

Four federal ministers led the operations stationed in the neighbouring countries.

“It was very difficult to survive there but relieved to be back,” Dhruv, one of the students who escaped from Sumy after living 12 days there under constant shelling and airstrikes, told reporters in Delhi on arrival.

An Indian student who was evacuated from Ukraine stands for a photograph with his family upon arrival at the Indira Gandhi International Airport. AP

Sumy State University, in a post on its website on Friday, said it had “organised the evacuation of almost 1,750 foreign students” who had stayed on its campus for two weeks since the beginning of the war.

“Throughout the wartime, the university has taken care of the foreign students providing them with essentials and safe living conditions. When the humanitarian corridor was opened, the students were evacuated out of the city.”