600 students on their last leg of home journey

Three flights would be bringing these Indian students, who had been stranded in Sumy for over 10 days amid intense bombing, from Poland

600 students on their last leg of home journey

Indian, Ukrainian nationals after evacuation, at Hindon Air Force Station in Ghaziabad on Thursday. Pic/ANI

India was to operate three flights on Thursday to bring back the last big group of 600 students evacuated from the northeastern Ukrainian city of Sumy.

The students had boarded a special train from Lviv for Poland. They reached Poland on Thursday.

The students reached Lviv in western Ukraine from Poltava on another special train.

According to the details shared by the students with PTI, three flights were to be operated between 4.30 pm and 6.30 pm (local time) from the Rzeszow airport in Poland to bring them back.

The first flight at 4.30 pm (9 pm IST) was for first, second and third-year students. The second flight at 5.30 pm (10.30 pm IST) was for fourth and fifth-year students and the third at 6.30 pm (11.30 pm IST) was for students with pets, fifth and sixth-year students and for any other students who may have been left behind.

“We have reached Poland, from here we are expected to take the flight for India,” said Jisna Jiji, a 25-year-old medical student.

Covering hundreds of miles across Ukraine, using multiple means of transport, the students were evacuated from the war-hit east European country after their two weeks of excruciating stay in beleaguered Sumy.

The Indian government is carrying out the most delicate and challenging evacuation exercise under Operation Ganga to help stranded Indians leave Ukraine. The Indian nationals were taken from Sumy in a convoy of 13 buses escorted by the International Committee of the Red Cross to Poltava, Anshad Ali, a student coordinator, said.

For two weeks, the Indian students in Sumy waged a doughty battle in bomb shelters and basements of their hostels in frigid weather, low on food and drinking water as Russian forces clobbered the city with rockets.

119
No. of Indians who arrived at Hindon airbase on Thursday

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