Mumbai

The seventh flight carrying 182 Indian nationals stranded in Ukraine reached Mumbai from Romania's Bucharest as part of 'Operation Ganga' on Tuesday.

Union Minister Narayan Rane received the evacuated Indian nationals at the Mumbai airport. Earlier today, External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar said that the eighth flight carrying 216 stranded Indian nationals has departed from Hungary's capital Budapest for New Delhi while the ninth flight carrying 218 Indians took off from the Romanian capital Bucharest for New Delhi as part of 'Operation Ganga'.

Meanwhile, Prime Minister Narendra Modi while presiding over a high-level meeting on Monday evening over the Ukraine crisis said that the entire government machinery is working round the clock to ensure that all stranded Indians in Ukraine are safe and secure, said Ministry of External Affairs spokesperson Arindam Bagchi.

This was the second high-level meeting chaired by the Prime Minister during the day over the prevailing situation in Ukraine. Government sources on Monday said that the 'Special Envoys' including Union Ministers Hardeep Singh Puri, Jyotiraditya Scindia, Kiren Rijiju and Gen (Retd) VK Singh will travel to neighbouring countries of Ukraine to coordinate evacuations of stranded Indians amid ongoing Russian military operations in Ukraine.

The union government has launched 'Operation Ganga' to bring back stranded students and Indian citizens from the conflict-torn Ukraine. Special flights are being operated by Air India as part of the 'Operation Ganga' mission.

Earlier on Monday, the Ministry of External Affairs said that India has evacuated over 8,000 nationals since the initial advisories were issued by the country.

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