An Air India flight scheduled to evacuate Indians stranded in crisis-hit Ukraine was forced to return to Delhi this morning after the eastern European country closed its airspace. A special flight landed in Delhi earlier, carrying 182 Indians.
Over 20,000 Indian citizens – several of whom are medical students – were in Ukraine as the crisis with Russia escalated rapidly over the past week, leading to concerns over their safety.
The Indian government’s immediate priority is to evacuate these people but the closure of Ukrainian airspace makes this a challenging proposition.
