Students stranded in Sumy finally return

This was the most difficult part of the evacuation of Indian civilians from Ukraine

India on Friday brought back around 600 students who were stranded in Sumy, which has seen some of the toughest Russian military action over the last fortnight inside Ukraine. This was the culmination of the most difficult part of the evacuation of Indian civilians from Ukraine since the conflict began.

The students were shifted out of Sumy earlier this week and driven to the western border with Poland. They were flown out in a C17 aircraft of the Indian Air Force from the Polish city of Rzeszow.

The arrival of the students at the Hindon airbase around mid-day marked one of the final flights that took off as part of Operation Ganga, the evacuation exercise aimed at the stranded Indians in Ukraine.

The situation in Sumy and Kharkiv was the worst as the cities were being bombed from the air, and the students had to stay in bomb shelters for days without access to basic amenities.