22,500 Indians have returned home from war-hit Ukraine, external affairs minister S Jaishankar told Rajya Sabha on Tuesday.
“Despite the challenges posed by the serious ongoing conflict, we have ensured that about 22,500 citizens have returned home safely,” he told the Upper House.
“At the direction of the PM, we launched Operation Ganga, thereby undertaking one of the most challenging evacuation exercises during an ongoing conflict situation. Our community was dispersed across Ukraine, posing its own logistical challenges,” he added.
“Pertinent to note that hostilities placed the Indian community of 20,000 plus in direct danger. Even while we were participating in global deliberations of this evolving situation in UNSC, pressing challenge was to safeguard our citizens and ensure that they weren’t in harm’s way,” the minister added.
“The exercise was undertaken at a time when military actions, including airstrikes and shelling, were underway. It involved movement in a war-torn situation in a large country, at times over a 1000 kms and required exiting border checkpoints clogged by an estimated 26 lakh refugees,” Jaishankar, who was at the forefront of the evacuation efforts facilitating the evacuation of Indian nationals from neighbouring countries, said.
With the war forcing Ukrainian authorities to shut the airspace, Jaishankar held late night diplomatic heavy lifting with his counterparts from Romania, Poland, Hungary, to ensure the Indian nationals are able to leave Ukraine via the borders of these countries before boarding the flight to India.
The external affairs minister mentioned how Prime Minister Narendra Modi spoke to Russian president Vladimir Putin and Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy and discussed the evacuation of Indian nationals in warzones Kharkiv and Sumy in the eastern region of Ukraine.
“The entire exercise involved a whole of government approach, with PM Modi himself chairing review meetings almost on a daily basis. At the MEA, we monitored evacuation ops on a 24/7 basis. We got excellent support from all concerned ministries and organisations including the civil aviation ministry, the defence ministry, NDRF, IAF and the private air carriers,” the external affairs minister added.
