Operation Ganga: Flights carrying students from Ukraine’s Sumy arrive home

Indian Air Force’s (IAF) C-17 Globemaster and IndiGo carrying students repatriated from Sumy-- the northeastern city in Ukraine – landed in Delhi on Friday. Both these flights embarked from Poland’s Rzeszow.

While the Indian Air Force aircraft landed at 12:15 pm at the Hindon Air Base, the IndiGo aircraft arrived at the Indira Gandhi International Airport at 12:20 pm after a pitstop at Istanbul.

Earlier in the day, an Air India flight that had also taken off from Rzeszow landed in Delhi at around 5:45 am.

Meanwhile, External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar shared a letter on Twitter and thanked the Indian Embassy in Ukraine and MEA team for their “dedicated efforts” aimed at evacuation of students stuck in the war-torn nation.

He also thanked Ukrainian and Russian authorities as well as the Red Cross for the assistance provided vis-à-vis evacuation. He also thanked NGOs, individual volunteers, corporates, airlines and the Indian Air Force for their efforts. Jaishankar also backed the efforts of the four Union Ministers who were present on the ground throughout the evacuation.

These ministers are – Kiren Rijiju, Hardeep Singh Puri, Jyotiraditya Scindia and General (Retd.) Dr VK Singh.

“Students from Sumy are returning today to India. Their evacuation was particularly challenging. Operation Ganga undertaken at the direction of Prime Minister Narendra Modi has delivered due to both leadership and commitment,” he said at the start of the letter.

Jaishankar wrote in this letter, “We are thankful to all those who facilitated its objectives. Our particular gratitude [goes] 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. My sincerest thanks to them.”

 (With agency inputs)