New Delhi, Feb 26: In a positive development, the first flight of Air India, AI-1944, carrying 219 Indian citizens who were stuck in Ukraine, took off from Romania. The flight will arrive in Mumbai at around 6:30 pm. Union Minister Piyush Goyal will receive the evacuees at Mumbai's Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj International Airport.
Union Minister of External Affairs, S Jaishankar, gave information about the evacuation process. "The first flight to Mumbai with 219 Indian nationals has taken off from Romania," said EAM S Jaishankar. Additionally, the Foreign Minister thanked his Romanian counterpart for the assistance and in return, Foreign Minister Bogdan Aurescu added, "This is what partners and friends are for!"
The second evacuation flight AI1942 is expected to return to the Delhi airport on early Sunday morning with another 250 Indian nationals. Air India will operate more flights on Saturday to Bucharest and Hungarian capital Budapest to evacuate Indians stranded in Ukraine.
Since the Ukrainian airspace has been closed for civil aircraft operations since the morning of February 24, the evacuation flights will operate out of neighboring countries.
Around 20,000 Indians, mainly students, are currently stranded in Ukraine, according to officials.
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