'Remember this day...': What envoy told Indians rescued from war-torn Ukraine
PremiumThis was the first flight of India's alternative evacuation plan. The flight is expected to reach Mumbai at 9pm on 26 February.
India's ambassador to Romania Rahul Shrivastava addressed the Indian students who had boarded the flight to India from Romania, Poland. these students are being evacuated from Ukraine in the face of a war that could shake the post Cold war security understanding between the nations.
On Thursday, Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin declared a special military operation on Ukraine, wherein Kyiv, the capital and most populous city of Ukraine, was attacked first, followed by an engagement near Chernobyl, where, Russian forces are now in command of the Chernobyl nuclear plant site.
The Indian government has been devising alternative routes to bring back the Indians from Ukraine safely, especially the students. Indian students form a major chunk in the Ukrainian student population, especially for medical courses. These students had earlier decided to stay back in order to continue their studies.
The students have come over to the Ukraine-Poland border from where the Polish authorities have taken over and India has sent flights to evacuate these students, following Ukraine's closure of airspace for civilian flights following an escalation in the Russian-Ukrainian crisis.
Rahul Srivatsava addressed the students inside the aircraft and urged them to remember this day always whenever the students face any difficulty, going forward. “Whenever in life you feel things are becoming difficult, things are not moving, remember this day, 26 February, and everything will be fine", he said.
"You are in the last leg of your journey back home where your relatives, friends and families would be waiting with open arms to welcome you. While you reach there, they will embrace, you embrace them, hug them," he said.
"But while you do that, when you are back in our motherland, you should also remember that your friends are still there (Ukraine). When you talk to your friends who are waiting to be evacuated, you should tell and assure them that the entire government of India team is working day and night including all officials here to evacuate everyone," the envoy said.
He further added: "Our mission is not complete till we have taken the last person to India out of Ukraine. Wishing you a very safe journey back home." the ambassador was heard saying in the video shared by news agency ANI.
All the students gave a big round of applause to the envoy's brief remarks.
These Indians have reached Romania from Ukraine via the Suceava border crossing as part of a coordinated evacuation mission by the Ministry of External Affairs and Indian embassies in Ukraine and Romania.
This was the first flight of India's alternative evacuation plan for which the evacuees were taken to Bucharest. The flight will reach Mumbai at 9pm on Saturday.
“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," foreign minister S Jaishankar also tweeted in this regard.
Another evacuation flight will be returning to Delhi on Sunday.
India on Friday managed to set up camp offices in Lviv and Chernivtsi towns in western Ukraine to facilitate the transit of Indians to Hungary, Romania and Poland. India also positioned teams of officials at Zahony border post in Hungary, Krakowiec as well as Shehyni-Medyka land border points in Poland, Vysne Nemecke in the Slovak Republic and Suceava transit point in Romania to coordinate the exit of Indian nationals from Ukraine.
(With inputs from PTI)
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