Modi asks IAF to airlift stranded Indians; leave Kyiv 'urgently,' says embassy

Prime Minister Narendra Modi has asked the Indian Air Force (IAF) to evacuate Indians stranded in Ukraine due to the Russian military offensive against that country.

The IAF is likely to deploy several C-17 aircraft as part of Operation Ganga from Tuesday.

Till now, only private Indian carriers were evacuating Indians from Romania and Hungary, countries with land borders with Ukraine on the western side, as the Ukrainian airspace had been shut since February 24.

India began evacuation of around 14,000 of its stranded citizens on February 26.

“In order to scale up the ongoing evacuation efforts under Operational Ganga, PM Modi has called for the IAF to join the exercise,” according to some sources.

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“Leveraging the capacities of the IAF will ensure that more people can be evacuated in a shorter time frame, they noted. The large C-17 aircraft will also help deliver humanitarian aid to war-hit Ukraine more efficiently,” the sources said.

Meanwhile, the Indian embassy in Kyiv has advised all Indian nationals to leave the Ukrainian capital city “urgently” by any means available.

The latest advisory suggests that the Russian forces could be close to launching a full-scale attack on Kyiv, after Kharkiv, the second largest city of Ukraine, had been pummelled with strikes late on Monday.

“More than 70 Ukrainian servicemen were killed when Russian troops shelled a military base in the town of Okhtyrka in Ukraine’s northeastern Sumy region on Monday,” regional governor Dmytro Zhyvytskyy said on Facebook.

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Meanwhile, External Affairs minister S. Jaishankar has announced on Twitter that the ninth flight carrying Indian nationals stranded in Ukraine has set off from Bucharest to New Delhi.

(With inputs from Agencies)