New Delhi:
During the crisis between Russia and Ukraine, India will provide humanitarian aid to Ukraine, including medicines, the foreign ministry said in a news conference on Monday.
MEA spokesman Arindam Bagchi said during the press conference on Monday: “India will provide humanitarian aid to Ukraine, including medicines. However, more details are not yet available.”
Talking about the evacuation of stranded Indian nationals in Ukraine, Mr Bagchi assured that new flights will be added if necessary.
“Some people are panicking. Don’t worry. Once you cross the Ukrainian border, we will make sure there are enough flights to take you back, whether it takes a day or two longer,” he said.
He stressed that India is constantly increasing the presence of the MEA teams for necessary arrangements at the border points in Slovakia, Romania, Poland, Hungary and Moldova.
“Team contact details have been shared. We are increasing the size of the MEA teams. We are also increasing the strength of our embassies in countries bordering Ukraine. Every day we are empowering more officials from nearby countries and from Delhi,” he added.
He asked Indian nationals to try to get to the western part of Ukraine and contact teams and control rooms. Share the location information so they can have them registered and see when they can be brought out because the borders are very busy, he said.
When asked whether the students pay exorbitant prices for the air tickets, he assured that no one pays anything and that everything goes from the government of India.
Mr Bagchi also confirmed that Union Minister of Civil Aviation Jyotiraditya Scindia will oversee evacuation operations of stranded Indians in Romania and Moldova, while Justice Minister Kiren Rijiju will visit Slovakia.
In addition, Minister of Petroleum and Natural Gas Hardeep Singh Puri will oversee activities in Hungary, and Ministry of State of the Ministry of Road Transport Gen (Retd) VK Singh will manage the evacuations in Poland.
Mr Bagchi answered a question about whether the Indian Air Force will be used as it was during the Afghanistan crisis for the evacuation of stranded Indian nationals, he said the Air Force is ready and will be used if necessary. He confirmed that at the moment only the commercial aircraft are working.
In response to a question about Indian nationals not getting an answer through the helpline, Mr Bagchi said that the control rooms have been expanded and that various channels such as WhatsApp and Twitter are functional to expand the capacity to respond.
In addition, the MEA spokesperson also confirmed that many of the Indian nationals have moved to western parts of Ukraine.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by DailyExpertNews staff and has been published from a syndicated feed.)