SHIMLA: Under Operation Ganga, as many as 219 Indian students including 17 from Himachal Pradesh with smiles on their faces onboard Air India flight that took off from Romanian capital Bucharest on Saturday   landed at Mumbai airport around 9:PM from western part of war-torn Ukraine.  They were received at the airport by Union Minister Piyush Goel.

The students on social media said they were confident that their Indian government would bring them back safely and hence there was no panic as such.

The first batch of Indian nationals,  most of them students have reached safely at the airport, said Piyush Goel. From the day one  Prime Minister Narender Modi and foreign minister S Jaishankar and the entire teams of Embassy of Ukraine have been in touch with the heads of Russia, Ukraine, Romania, Hungary and other countries to ensure the safety of Indian national in Ukraine and they are being brought back safely on priority, he tweeted.  

Government of India has codenamed evacuation of Indian nationals in Ukraine as "Operation Ganga" that has gone viral on social media. The second batch of over 200 national is expected to land at Delhi airport on Sunday February 27, said an MEA official on social media.  

The students and other Indian nationals stuck in and around eastern parts of Ukraine where Russians and Ukraine forces are engaged in the fierce fights, are still taking shelter in basements  and underground metros due to safety issues. They have been tweeting and sharing their videos with their friends who have arrived in Indian earlier,  seeking their evacuation from the war-ravaged zone.      

Government of India and Embassy of India at Kyiv have set up helplines at all check points at Chernivtsi near Romanian border and Chop-Zahony near Hungary border, Poland, Slovak Republic around the war-torn Ukraine (see Photo).

Indian students near these borders have been asked first to reach these Checkpoints first in an organised manner, said the Embassy of India Kyiv. Embassy has shared advisory with the students in Ukraine and on social media. Embassy will coordinate with the teams of Ministry of External Affairs to exercise and actualise this option”, Embassy advisory said.

The help lines number are shared with the Indian nationals in Ukraine. They should carry with them  passport,  cash preferably in US dollars for any emergency expenses and other essentials and Covid -19 double vaccination certificate if available”, Embassy said.

The bus operators and students are also advised to get the printouts of Indian Flags and paste the flags prominently on vehicles and buses in which they are travelling. Embassy has asked Indian national to remain strong, safe and alert and Embassy is also working around the clock to support the Indian community in Ukraine.

There are over 15000 students enrolled in medical university of Bukovina, Bogomolets national medical university, Kharkiv national medical university, Vinnytsia national Pirogov medical university, Ternopil State medical university, which are popular among the Indian students.  There are in fact over 20 medical universities in Ukraine offering MBBS degree to the students who are enrolled there from many countries including India.

The Indian students go there for MBBS as the cost of degree is much less than that offered by the private medical colleges and medical universities in India, said the parents, who are forced to send their children to Ukraine.  

There are still over 100 students from Shimla, Mandi, Kangra, Solan, Una and other districts, and  mnay hundreds from other Himalayan states including Uttarakhand and Arunachal Pradesh who are still stuck there.  They go for studying for MBBS Degree to Ukraine every year, said the parents. 

Meanwhile, UNSC, various international civil society groups, human rights bodies are asking the heads of governments around the around to  build pressure on Russia to halt the war and opt for the peaceful solution to the issues and problems with Ukraine in the interest of humanity at large.   

In India, RSS has urged Prime Minister Narender Modi to pressurize Russia to halt the war  and solve the issues with Ukraine  through peaceful means. 

(Kuldeep Chauhan is Editor, HimbuMail)