India to provide humanitarian assistance including medicines to Ukraine: MEA

MEA Spokesperson Arindam Bagchi in the press briefing on Monday said, "India will provide humanitarian assistance to Ukraine including medicines. 

However, no more details are yet available." Talking about the evacuation of stranded Indian Nationals in Ukraine, Bagchi assured that new flights will be added as needed. "Some people are panicking. Please do not worry. Once you cross the Ukrainian borders we will make sure that there are enough flights to bring you back whether it takes a day or two more," he said. 

He emphasized that India is continually augmenting the presence of the MEA teams for necessary arrangements at the borders points in Slovakia, Romania, Poland, Hungary and Moldova. "Contact details of teams have been shared. We are increasing the size of the MEA teams. We are also augmenting the strength of our embassies in countries bordering Ukraine. Every day we are authorizing more officials from nearby countries as well as from Delhi, " he added.

Also read: India opens new route through Moldova to evacuate its citizens from Ukraine: MEA

He asked the Indian Nationals to try to go to the western part of Ukraine and contact teams, contact control rooms.. Share the location information so that they can get them registered and see when can they be brought out because the borders are very crowded. 

Replying to the question of whether the students are paying exorbitant prices for the airfare, he assured that no one is paying anything and everything is going from the Government of India. Bagchi also confirmed that Union Minister of Civil Aviation Jyotiraditya Scindia will be overseeing evacuation operations of stranded Indians in Romania and Moldova, while Minister of Law Kiren Rijiju will be visiting Slovakia. 

Furthermore, Minister of Petroleum and Natural Gas Hardeep Singh Puri will be overlooking operations in Hungary, and Minister of State in the Ministry of Road Transport Gen (Retd) VK Singh will manage evacuations in Poland. Bagchi, while answering a question of whether the Indian Airforce will be used like it was done during the Afghanistan crisis for evacuation of stranded Indian Nationals, he said that the airforce is ready and if required India will use this. 

He confirmed that right now only the commercial aircraft are working. Replying to a question on Indian Nationals not getting a response on the helpline provided, Bagchi said that control rooms have been expanded and several channels like Whatsapp, Twitter among others are functional to expand the capacity to respond. Moreover, the MEA spokesperson also confirmed that many of the Indian Nationals have moved to western parts of Ukraine.