6 flights have evacuated nearly 1400 Indian nationals from Ukraine so far: MEA

New Delhi (India): The Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) on Monday announced that a total of six evacuation flights have landed in India until now with 1,400 nationals who were stranded in war-torn Ukraine after the Russian military offensive began last week. 

"As of now, six flights have arrived carrying around 1,400 Indian citizens. Four flights have arrived from Bucharest (Romania) and two flights from Budapest (Hungary)," said MEA spokesperson Arindam Bagchi said during a press briefing today.

"Evacuation efforts are on ... Situation on the ground continues to be complex and fluid, some of them quite concerning, but we've been able to accelerate our evacuation process. About 8,000 Indian nationals have left Ukraine since we issued an advisory, not since the conflict began," he added.

Bagchi also confirmed that India plans to send four senior ministers to Ukraine's border nations to help in the rescue of thousands of its citizens.

Union minister of civil aviation Jyotiraditya Scindia will be overseeing evacuation operations of stranded Indians in Romania and Moldova, while minister of Law Kiren Rijiju will be visiting Slovakia.

Minister of petroleum and natural gas Hardeep Singh Puri will be overlooking operations in Hungary, and minister of state in the ministry of road transport Gen (Retd) VK Singh will manage evacuations in Poland.

This comes as the sixth evacuation flight from Hungary’s capital Budapest carrying 240 Indian nationals landed at the Delhi airport on Monday. 

The fifth evacuation flight came from the Romanian capital Bucharest to Delhi earlier during the day. 

India began the evacuation of its citizens from Romania and Hungary — neighbouring countries of Ukraine — from Saturday onwards.