Remember this day during difficulty', envoy's heartwarming words to Indians evacuated from Ukraine
Categories: FOREIGN COUNTRIES
A message by Rahul Shrivastava, Indian Ambassador in Romania to the evacuated Indians from Ukraine has gone viral.During a last-minute announcement before the evacuation flight took off from Bucharest, he said, "I know you have come through a very long and arduous road journey. So the last thing in your mind is an announcement by an ambassador. You are in the last leg of the journey back home where your friend and families will be waiting with an open arm... Remember your friends who are still here. And when you talk to your friends who are still waiting for the evacuation, you should tell them, assure them that the entire government of India team is working day and night to evacuate everyone. And our mission is not complete until we take the last Indian out of Ukraine." ''The government of India is working day & night to evacuate everyone and our mission is not complete till we have evacuated the last person. Remember this day, 26th February, whenever you feel difficulty in life. Everything will be fine," the ambassador said.The aircraft, AI1943, took off from the Mumbai airport around 3.40 AM (Indian Standard Time) and landed at the Bucharest airport around 10.45 AM (Indian Standard Time), senior government officials said.It had planned to operate two more flights on February 24 and February 26 but it could not do so as the Russian offensive began on February 24 and the Ukrainian airspace was consequently shut down. Air India said on Twitter on Friday night that it will be operating flights on B787 aircraft from Delhi and Mumbai to Bucharest and Budapest on Saturday as special government charter flights to fly back stranded Indian citizens.The Indian embassy in Ukraine on Friday said it is working to establish evacuation routes from Romania and Hungary.The distance between Kyiv and the Romanian border checkpoint is approximately 600 kilometres and it takes anywhere between eight-and-a-half hours to 11 hours to cover it by road.Bucharest is located approximately 500 kilometres from the Romanian border checkpoint and it takes anywhere between seven to nine hours by road.The distance between Kyiv and the Hungarian border checkpoint is around 820 kilometres and it takes 12-13 hours to cover it by road.