New Delhi: Official sources said on Saturday that Union ministers Piyush Goyal and V Muraleedharan will receive Indians returning from the war-torn Ukraine aboard government-chartered flights at airports.

They said Goyal would meet the evacuees at the Mumbai airport later in the evening after arriving on an Air India flight from Bucharest, Romania, and Muraleedharan would meet them at the New Delhi airport. Foreign Secretary Harsh Vardhan Shringla said on February 24 that some 16,000 Indians, mostly students, were trapped in Ukraine.

On Friday, the Indian embassy in Ukraine announced that it is working to set up evacuation routes from Romania and Hungary. Officials reported that Air India's first evacuation flight left Bucharest, Romania, on Saturday afternoon for Mumbai, carrying 219 Indian nationals who had been stranded in Ukraine due to the current Russian military onslaught.

The airline's second evacuation flight took off from Delhi at 11:40 a.m. and is scheduled to arrive in Bucharest at 6.30 p.m. (Indian Standard Time).

It said, Indian people who crossed the Ukraine-Romania border by vehicle were brought to Bucharest by Indian government personnel in order to be evacuated on Air India flights.

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Air India plane reached Bucharest to bring Indians trapped in Ukraine, people will reach Delhi today