On Tuesday, around 11.30 p.m., an Air India special flight, AI1946, arrived in Delhi from Kyiv, Ukraine. The passengers were mostly students who were returning after the Indian embassy in Ukraine issued advisories requesting that they temporarily leave Ukraine. Dhruv Malhotra, a fifth-year medical student in the Ukrainian city of Kharkiv, was among those who returned. “Right now, the situation in Kharkiv and Kyiv is calm and under control.” “However, the tension appears to be rising, and we were advised to leave,” he explained.
#WATCH | Air India special flight carrying around 242 passengers from Ukraine landed at Delhi airport as tensions escalate pic.twitter.com/HHryuWt7i9
— ANI (@ANI) February 22, 2022
Students said that Tensions appears to heightened among Ukrainians
Malhotra, who is from Vrindavan, said that many of his friends are returning soon, some on Air India flights scheduled in the coming days and others on other airlines. Air India is operating two special flights between Kyiv and Delhi on February 24 and 26 in addition to the one that arrived on Tuesday. There appeared to be a lot of tension among the Ukrainians, according to Mohammad Alfaiz, a second-year medical student from Delhi. “The situation is normal so far,” he said, “but students are concerned.”
“Classes will now be conducted entirely online. It will affect our studies because practicals will be disrupted, and we will only be able to return once the situation has stabilized,” said Mohammad Zeeshan, a second-year MBBS student from Mumbai. “As well, our friends will be back soon.” People are returning as soon as flights are available. The flight tickets we’ve seen are extremely costly.”
Harwinder Saroha, a Sonipat resident whose daughter Nikita was returning from Ternopil National Medical University, also commented on the high cost of the flight tickets. “The tickets are around Rs 66,000 now, when they are usually around Rs 26,000,” says the source. We were able to obtain the ticket, but others may have difficulty. Although there were no major issues where she was staying, we decided that she should return to be safe. “She lives over 400 kilometers from Kyiv, but she had no trouble getting to Kyiv to catch the flight,” Saroha explained.
Rajesh Rana, a Patiala resident whose daughter Harshita, a fifth-year medical student, was returning on Tuesday, agreed that there were not many flights available. “It was quite costly.” It’s great that these flights are now available, but more are needed,” Rana said.
On Tuesday, students flew back on different flights. A Turkish Airlines flight brought Divyam, who is from Botad in Gujarat, and Neerav Patel, who is also from Gujarat, back to Delhi. “We don’t know what the border situation was like. Students began to leave after the embassy issued advisories to do so. Classes will now be held online,” said Divyam, a Chernivtsi first-year student.
The Indian embassy in Kyiv issued an advisory on February 20 advising all Indian nationals “whose stay is not deemed essential and all Indian students” to leave Ukraine temporarily due to “the continued high levels of tensions and uncertainties regarding the situation in Ukraine.” The embassy advised Indian students to leave Ukraine temporarily rather than wait for official confirmation from universities about online classes in a new advisory issued on Tuesday.