Prime Minister Narendra Modi has chaired a meeting on Friday 4th March 2022 to take a review of the ongoing Operation Ganga to evacuate stranded Indians from the war-hit Ukraine. External affairs minister S Jaishankar, minister of commerce and industry Piyush Goyal, foreign secretary Harsh Vardhan Shringla, NSA Ajit Doval, and a few other senior officials also attended the meeting.
Earlier on Monday, PM Modi had chaired a meeting to review the ongoing efforts under Operation Ganga to bring back the Indians in Ukraine amidst Russia’s military operations. On the last Sunday, that is on 27th February 2022, another meeting was also held in this regard. Besides, on 24th February, the cabinet committee on security had met soon after Russia had announced its military operations in Ukraine.
As the situation worsened over the last few weeks, the Indian embassy in Ukraine has been issuing various advisories for the Indians living in Ukraine. In the advisories, the Indians living in Ukraine were first asked to leave Ukraine, and then after the beginning of the war, they were asked to move towards the western borders of Ukraine. PM Modi had personally spoken to Russian President Vladimir Putin about providing safe passage to Indians who are yet to move away from the conflict zone. The Indian Air Force and many other private airlines are operating evacuation flights from Poland, Hungary and Romania. These flights are bringing back the Indians who have crossed the Ukraine borders and entered into its neighbouring countries.
The Russian embassy had informed earlier this week that upon the request of the Indian government they are working to create a safe corridor so that Indian students leaving Kharkiv can pass.
The government of India has deployed four special envoys to four neighbouring countries of Ukraine in order to coordinate the evacuation process of the Indians. Union minister of petroleum and natural gases Hardeep Singh Puri is coordinating the evacuation efforts in Hungary. Union law minister Kiren Rijiju is monitoring the evacuation processes taking place in Slovakia. Union minister of civil aviation Jyotiraditya Scindia is looking after the evacuations from Romania and Minister of states for road transport and highways and civil aviation General VK Singh is managing the operations in Poland.
There were approximately 20,000 Indians in Ukraine before the hostilities began. As per the latest updates over 18,000 Indians have left Ukraine.
