Third evacuation flight brings back 240 Indians from Budapest

Emotions ran high at the Delhi airport as the anxious wait of several parents to reunite with their children arriving from Ukraine ended in joy with the landing of the third evacuation flight on Sunday morning. 

The Indira Gandhi International Airport became a witness to a plethora of emotions as parents gave their children a grand welcome with flowers, cards and warm hugs upon their arrival from the Hungarian capital Budapest.

Also see: Live coverage of the war in Ukraine

Air India’s third evacuation flight, AI1940, which was scheduled to land at around 7am, reached a couple of hours late at 9.20am. At around 2.45am, Air India’s second evacuation flight from Romania’s capital, Bucharest, brought back 250 Indians to Delhi. The first evacuation flight, AI1944, had brought 229 people from Bucharest to Mumbai on Saturday evening. 

As the returnees belong to different states, several states have established help desks and provided transport services from the Delhi airport to their homes. 

Shashank Sharashwat, a first-year medical student, thanked the Indian government and the embassy for facilitating his return along with the others. “Now, we are safe. The situation in Ukraine is quite tense,” he said. 

A majority of the 240 students that landed in the third evacuation flight were studying in the western city of the Uzhhorod, which is one of the cities least affected due to the Russian military operation. 

Several of the students whom PTI spoke to said that the situation in the western cities of Ukraine was much better than the rest of the country. 

Another medical student, Abhijeet Kumar, said: “There is no violence in the west but we faced a lot of problems. People started panicking. Prices of groceries shot up and there was panic-buying,” he said.