Ukraine crisis: PM Modi asks Air Force to evacuate stranded Indians

Prime Minister Narendra Modi has asked the Indian Air Force (IAF) to evacuate Indians stranded in Ukraine due to the Russian military offensive against that country, sources said on Tuesday.

The IAF is likely to deploy several C-17 aircraft as part of Operation Ganga from Tuesday, they said.

The sources said the IAF is keeping its aircraft on standby to launch the evacuation operation at short notice.

In order to scale up the ongoing evacuation efforts under Operational Ganga, Modi has called for the IAF to join the exercise, the sources said.

Leveraging the capacities of the IAF will ensure that more people can be evacuated in a shorter time frame, they noted.