New Delhi: Indian Air Force’s C-17 transport aircraft will leave for Romania at 4 am on Wednesday to bring back Indian citizens stranded in Ukraine. Indian Foreign Secretary Harsh Vardhan Shringla on Tuesday evening said that the aircraft will take off from its base at the Hindon Air Station near Delhi.

The war waged by Russia has reached Ukraine capital Kiev and the country’s second largest city Kharkiv. Over next three days, 26 IAF flights have been scheduled to operate.

Special flight of #OperationGanga carrying Indian nationals stranded in Ukraine departed from Poland to Delhi@opganga @MEAIndia @Gen_VKSingh@IndiainPoland @tapasjournalist

#OperationGanga #UkraineRussiaConflict #UkraineCrisis pic.twitter.com/yFfigi2GKe

— DD News (@DDNewslive) March 1, 2022

At 4 am on Wednesday a C-17 aircraft will fly to Romania to evacuate the stranded Indian students, he said. Expressing deep concerns over the developments in Ukraine, Shringla said that so far, 12K Indians have left Ukraine, which is about 60% of total Indians present in Ukraine. He also confirmed that no Indian is stranded in Kiev as of now.

Foreign Secretary said that Indian nationals have been advised to head to the western parts of Ukraine and exit from there whenever they can. They can go towards Hungary, Slovakia, Romania, Poland and Moldova. As many as 7,700 nationals have exited through these routes, he informed.