Students evacuated from Ukraine’s Sumy landed in India on Friday morning, people familiar with the developments told news agency PTI. An Air India flight from Poland’s Rzeszow landed in Delhi’s Indira Gandhi International Airport bringing back students who were stuck in bunkers and bomb shelters as Russia’s ‘military operation’ in Ukraine continued.
Indian officials sent three flights to Poland to bring back more than 600 students evacuated from Sumy. India has so far evacuated more than 20,000 students and citizens who were studying and working in Ukraine. Students told news agency PTI that of the three flights that were sent to Sumy, the first flight was for first, second and third-year students. The second flight is for fourth and fifth-year students and the third is for those with pets, fifth and sixth-year students and for citizens who many have left behind.
Later on Friday morning, news agency ANI via a tweet reported that another special flight, carrying 242 Indian citizens landed in New Delhi on Friday morning.
The operation to evacuate Indians from Sumy from the eastern city of Sumy began last week when buses from Sumy evacuated the stranded citizens and students when the city was being hit by Russian artillery and fighting erupted on streets between Ukrainian and Russian forces.
Indian officials were stationed in Poland and Russia Belgorod ready to help with evacuation after students and parents of these students sent repeated SOS to the government seeking their childrens’ safe exit from the conflict-ridden nation.
Students told News18, CNNNews18 and other news agencies of their ordeals and even sent their video pleas seeking extraction. They said that they suffered as bombardment continued while power and heating mains remained cut off and water supply was also hindered due to the Russian ‘military operation’.
“We have gone through unprecedented challenges in Sumy. It was a terrible experience to survive the war for 13 days. To me, it looks like a miracle to have returned alive to my country,” Dheeraj Kumar, a student studying in Sumy, told news agency PTI upon his return while expressing his relief.
Two Indian students also died in the war in Ukraine.
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