Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Wednesday said that it was because of India’s “rising power” globally that the central government was able to evacuate the citizens from war-torn Ukraine. He also said that the country will not spare any spare any efforts to bring back its citizens from the country, which is under attack by Russia.
“We are making all efforts to evacuate people stuck in Ukraine under Operation Ganga. Thousands of citizens brought back to India. To accelerate this mission, India has sent its four ministers there, will leave no stone unturned for the safe passage of Indians,” said Modi while addressing a poll rally in UP’s Sonbhadra.
On Monday, the prime minister chaired a high-level meeting over the Ukraine crisis and directed four Union ministers to visit the neighbouring countries of Ukraine to overlook and expedite the evacuation process. On Tuesday, Union Ministers Hardeep Singh Puri, Kiren Rijiju and Jyotiraditya Scindia left for Hungary, Slovakia and Romania respectively. Union Minister V K Singh had left on Monday night for Poland.
In the first Indian casualty in the war, a medical student from Karnataka’s Haveri district was killed in intense shelling in the eastern Ukrainian city of Kharkiv on Tuesday. Following the incident, India asked the envoys of both Russia and Ukraine to ensure “urgent safe passage” to Indian nationals who are still in Kharkiv and other conflict zones.
The prime minister has also asked the Indian Air Force (IAF) to evacuate Indians stranded in Ukraine, sources said, adding the force is likely to deploy several C-17 aircraft, which has the capacity to carry approximately 300 passengers, as part of Operation Ganga.
Till now, only private Indian carriers have been evacuating Indians from Romania and Hungary, countries with land borders with Ukraine on the western side, as the Ukrainian airspace has been shut since February 24 following the Russian military offensive.