Indian Prime Minister (PM) Narendra Modi held a high-level meeting on Ukraine to review the progress made in “Operation Ganga,” through which authorities are seeking to repatriate Indians stranded in the Eastern European country. Modi announced that four senior ministers from the Union government would be deployed to countries neighbouring Ukraine as his special envoys and would “energise the evacuation efforts.”
The four ministers being sent to Europe are Minister of Petroleum and Natural Gas Hardeep Singh Puri, Minister of Civil Aviation Jyotiraditya Scindia, Minister of Law and Justice Kiren Rijiju, and Minister of State in the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways VK Singh, who will respectively travel to Hungary, Romania and Moldova, Slovakia, and Poland.
The meeting also saw the participation of External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar, Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal, National Security Advisor Ajit Doval, Foreign Secretary Harsh Vardhan Shringla, and other senior officials.
PM @narendramodi chaired a high level meet,his second today, to review the ongoing efforts under #OperationGanga to bring back Indians stranded in Ukraine.
— Arindam Bagchi (@MEAIndia) February 28, 2022
PM said that the entire government machinery is working round the clock to ensure that all Indians there are safe & secure.
According to a release by the Indian Ministry of External Affairs (MEA), PM Modi informed officials that India’s first consignment of relief and aid to Ukraine will be dispatched on Tuesday. Furthermore, he declared that India will assist in the evacuation of nationals from neighbouring countries and other developing countries.
With Ukraine closing its airspace, Indian authorities have been conducting evacuation operations by urging citizens to travel by land to neighbouring countries to take repatriation flights back home.
#Watch | An Indian student who managed to cross the #Ukraine-Romania border early Monday morning said that a group of 50 students were stranded in the open in sub-zero temperatures. #UkraineRussiaCrisis
— The Indian Express (@IndianExpress) February 28, 2022
Follow live updates: https://t.co/xRvxiu6Ayj pic.twitter.com/W0Xyrtwg7W
Modi also spoke with his counterparts from Romania and Slovakia on Monday and thanked them for their assistance with India’s evacuation operations. He informed them about the deployment of his special envoys to their countries and highlighted the importance of respecting “the sovereignty and territorial integrity of nations.”
Meanwhile, MEA spokesperson Arindam Bagchi said that the situation in Ukraine continues to be “complex and fluid” and “quite concerning.” However, he noted that evacuation efforts are ongoing and that the process is being accelerated.
Ever since the beginning of Russia’s military operation in Ukraine, which now enters its sixth day, Indian authorities have been conducting evacuations under “Operation Ganga,” with Jaishankar vowing that Indian authorities “will not rest” until the remaining 12,000 Indians are brought back.
We will not rest till our fellow Indians are safe.
— Dr. S. Jaishankar (@DrSJaishankar) February 28, 2022
Ninth #OperationGanga flight departs Bucharest for New Delhi with 218 Indian nationals. https://t.co/uQzlBMlxi9
As of Tuesday morning, there have been nine repatriation flights, bringing the total number of Indians evacuated from Ukraine to 8,000. Jaishankar has been in touch with his counterparts from Poland, Hungary, and Moldova to facilitate the movement of Indian nationals in Ukraine to the neighbouring countries.