New Delhi

Three more Indian Air Force aircraft are scheduled to fly to Poland, Hungary, and Romania on Wednesday to ramp up the Centre's efforts to evacuate Indian nationals stranded in Ukraine, IAF officials said.

The Indian Air Force aircraft are carrying tents, blankets, and other humanitarian aid. One C-17 Globemaster took off at 4 am earlier Wednesday for Romania under Operation Ganga.

This comes after Prime Minister Narendra Modi chaired a high-level meeting on Tuesday to review the efforts to bring back Indians stranded in Ukraine and asked the Indian Air Force to join the evacuation efforts.

Sources said that leveraging the capacities of the Air Force will ensure that more people can be evacuated in a shorter time frame and it will also help to deliver humanitarian aid more efficiently.

After Russia's forces launched military operations in Ukraine on February 24, the Government of India launched Operation Ganga to bring back stranded Indian nationals from the conflict-torn Ukraine. Special flights are being operated to facilitate returns of the stranded Indians free of cost.

The 24x7 control centres have been set up to assist in the evacuation of Indian nationals through the border crossing points with Poland, Romania, Hungary, and Slovakia. A new route has been opened through Moldova and an MEA team is also now in place there and is operational. The team will assist in the evacuation of Indians through Romania.

A dedicated Twitter Account (@opganga) has been set up to assist Operation Ganga. The Indian Embassy in Kyiv has advised Indian citizens against moving to any of the border checkpoints without prior coordination with government officials at border posts.