Union minister Kiren Rijiju visited Slovakia to meet the Indian nationals who crossed over from war-hit Ukraine and are headed home. He posted a video on microblogging platform Koo in which Rijiju said he checked basic facilities for Indians coming from Ukraine.
"Today morning, I visited Bidovce in Slovakia to check basic facilities for our citizens coming from Ukraine. Initially they had faced difficulties which will be taken care of now," the accompanying post said.
Rijiju also interacted with the Indian nationals at Bidovce airport an informed them about the arrangements made by the government. "Why are you wearing just a shirt? I feel cold just by looking at you," Rijiju jokingly told one of the Indians gathered at the airport.
The Indian government has launched "Operation Ganga" to bring back its citizens stranded in Ukraine. Rijiju is among four senior ministers sent to Ukraine's border nations to help in the rescue operation. The other three ministers are Hardeep Puri, Jyotiraditya Scindia and VK Singh.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi has chaired multiple high-level meetings with officials to discuss evacuation efforts, amid rising concerns back home about their safety.
According to Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) spokesperson Arindam Bagchi, 16,000 of the nearly 20,000 Indians have left Ukraine. Out of these, 6,400 have come back home - 3,000 on 15 flights in the last 24 hours - as part of "Operation Ganga", he added.
But students who landed in India from Ukraine on Thursday strongly criticized the government, saying that steps were not taken to rescue citizens from the conflict zone.
"We received help only after we crossed the border into Hungary. There was no help before that. Whatever we did, we did on our own. Ten of us formed a group and boarded a train. The train was packed," Divyanshu Singh, who landed in Delhi today afternoon, told NDTV. He was greeted with a rose.
"Now that we are here, we are being given this. What is the point? What will we do with this? What would our families do if something happened to us there?"
Another student said Indian embassy helplines were giving conflicting advice. "Now that we are here, it is being called evacuation," said the student. She recalled the long walks in the cold amid the fighting, and waiting for days at the border without food or water.
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