219 Indians on board first flight from Romania, EAM personally monitoring evacuation

New Delhi: External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar on Saturday said he is personally monitoring the evacuation of Indian nationals from Ukraine and the first flight to Mumbai with 219 Indian nationals has taken off from Romania.

In a tweet, he said the MEA is making progress in evacuation of Indian nationals, mostly students, from Ukraine. “Regarding evacuation of Indian nationals from Ukraine, we are making progress. “Our teams are working on the ground round the clock. I am personally monitoring. “The first flight to Mumbai with 219 Indian nationals has taken off from Romania,” he said.

He also thanked his Romanian counterpart Bogdan Aurescu for the help. “My heartfelt thanks to FM @BogdanAurescu for his Government's cooperation.” The Romanian FM in reply said: “This is what partners and friends are for! Romania- India friendship.” On Friday, the first batch of Indian students crossed the Ukrainian border to reach Romania even as appeals for help from stranded Indians started flooding social media. MEA spokesperson Arindam Bagchi uploaded a video showing the first batch of Indians from Ukraine reaching Romania via the Suceava border crossing.

The MEA teams will facilitate their travel to Bucharest for their onward journey to India, he said. Separately, the Indian Embassy in Ukraine said that 470 Indians, mostly students, are set to cross over to Romania through the Porubne-Siret border. Meanwhile, calls for help started reaching the MEA via social media. MoS Muraleedharan answered some of the calls for help on his twitter handle, and said that India is working out all possible options to help stranded students. Earlier, the Embassy in an advisory notified two border points in western Ukraine for evacuation of Indians to the countries of Romania and Hungary .- Chop-Zahony on the Hungarian border near Uzhhorod, and Porubne-Siret, on the Romanian border near Chernivtsi.(UNI)