New Delhi: The first batch of Indian students on Saturday entered Hungary from the Ukrainian side at the Zahony crossing. They will be travelling onward to capital Budapest for return to India by Air India flight today, the Indian Embassy in Hungary said.
The embassy posted videos of students holding the Indian flag and shouting “Vande Mataram”, with relief writ large on their faces as they were being taken by bus to Budapest for evacuation by flight.
The embassy said in tweets: “First batch of Indian students enter Hungary from Ukrainian side at Zahony crossing, travelling onward to Budapest for return to India by AI flight today.”
“More batches of Indian students enter Hungary from Ukrainian side at Zahony crossing, travelling onward to Budapest for return to India by AI flight today,” it tweeted.
Earlier, External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar said that he is personally monitoring the evacuation of Indian nationals from Ukraine and informed that the first flight to Mumbai with 219 Indian nationals has taken off from Romania. In a tweet, he said the MEA is making progress in evacuation of Indian nationals, mostly students, from Ukraine.
“Regarding evacuation of Indian nationals from Ukraine, we are making progress. “Our teams are working on the ground round the clock. I am personally monitoring.
“The first flight to Mumbai with 219 Indian nationals has taken off from Romania,” he said.On Friday, the first batch of Indian students crossed the Ukrainian border to reach Romania even as appeals for help from stranded Indians started flooding social media.
MEA spokesperson Arindam Bagchi uploaded a video showing the first batch of Indians from Ukraine reaching Romania via the Suceava border crossing. The MEA teams will facilitate their travel to Bucharest for their onward journey to India, he said.
Separately, the Indian Embassy in Ukraine said that 470 Indians, mostly students, were set to cross over to Romania through the Porubne-Siret border. Meanwhile, calls for help started reaching the MEA via social media.
MoS Muraleedharan answered some of the calls for help on his twitter handle, and said that India is working out all possible options to help stranded students. Earlier, the Embassy in an advisory notified two border points in western Ukraine for evacuation of Indians to the countries of Romania and Hungary .- Chop-Zahony on the Hungarian border near Uzhhorod, and Porubne-Siret, on the Romanian border near Chernivtsi.
