“The government believes that with the successful evacuation effort from Sumy, it has managed to bring back all student groups and most Indian nationals who wanted to exit from Ukraine,” the source explained.
Under Operation Ganga almost 20,000 Indians have been brought back in over 90 special flights from the Ukraine borders. On Friday, the more students returned on a special flights carrying around 600 Indian students which landed at the Hindon Indian Air Force Base earlier today. These students were evacuated through a humanitarian corridor, from the war torn Ukrainian city of Sumy. The students used the humanitarian corridors to reach the borders of Poland from where they boarded the special flights to India.
Sources while confirming the return of the students from Sumy to Financial Express Online, indicated that “Operation Ganga’’ maybe be drawing to an end.
“The government believes that with the successful evacuation effort from Sumy, it has managed to bring back all student groups and most Indian nationals who wanted to exit from Ukraine,” the source explained.
According to sources, special group of officials who had the knowledge of Russian where special flown to evacuation to help in the evacuation process from Ukraine. The special team of officials is expected to return to India soon and the Indian mission in that country is expected to function with limited staff from the city of Lviv.
Journey of the students from Sumy
Explaining the journey of the students from Sumy through the humanitarian corridor, sources said “Sumy located in north eastern Ukraine was facing very heavy fighting. The students travelled in special buses all the way to Poltova, which is in Central Ukraine and from there they reached Lviv.”
“From Lviv the students boarded a special train for reaching the Polish border and from there they boarded special flights to return to India,” the source added.
Evacuation
In January, the first advisory was issued by the Indian mission in Ukraine, following which 22,000 Indian nationals left Ukraine
In Operation Ganga, more than 20,000 Indian nationals, majority of who were students, left the war torn countr on special commercial and transport aircraft of the Indian Air Force. The students were mainly located in major cities like Kiev, Sumy and Kharkiv.
Special Buses for those who were evacuated
Special buses were organized for the students who had to walk for long distance to reach borders before being evacuated on special flights. Lots of students walked long distance or boarded trains to reach the designated points where the Indian officials were waiting.
For the students who were stranded in Sumy and in Pisochin, special buses were arranged for them to be evacuated.
Why was evacuation difficult in Sumy?
Safety of the students was the top most priority of the government to bring them back to India. The whole process of evacuation from Sumy was very tough as the city was facing heavy firing and shelling. To start the process of taking out the students, a temporary holding of fire was negotiated. And, once all the students left Sumy and reached the Polish border they boarded special flights from the Polish city Rzeszow on way to India.
Is the Operation over?
The government and the Indian mission have repeatedly being issuing advisories to all the Indians in the war torn Ukraine, urging them to leave the country.
Will there be more special flights?
Probably not. While the Indian mission will provide all assistance, those who still want to come back might have to come on commercial flights.
