Serious efforts underway to evacuate Indian students from Ukraine: Om Birla

Chennai (Tamil Nadu) [India], March 3 (ANI): Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla on Wednesday said that the government is making "serious efforts" to evacuate Indian students stranded in Ukraine's "war zone" areas.
His statement comes amid Russian military operations in Ukraine.
Speaking to media persons on the sidelines of an event, the Lok Sabha Speaker said, "Serious efforts being made by the government are underway to evacuate the stranded Indian students from war zone areas of Ukraine."
Birla also said that he has spoken to External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar.
Special flights have been pressed in action to evacuate Indian nationals stranded in Ukraine under 'Operation Ganga'.
Jaishankar on Wednesday tweeted, "Nine flights have taken off today from Hungary, Romania, Slovakia and Poland. Includes IAF aircraft. 6 flights more are expected to depart shortly. Altogether, will bring back more than 3000 Indian nationals."
A total of 17,000 Indian nationals have left Ukraine since the advisories were issued and flights under 'Operation Ganga' were scaled up to facilitate the evacuation of remaining students stranded in Ukraine.
Meanwhile, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Wednesday chaired a high-level meeting on the issue. The meeting was attended by Union Ministers S Jaishankar, Piyush Goyal, National Security Advisor Ajit Doval, Foreign Secretary Harsh Vardhan Shringla and other officials.
For the past few days, the Prime Minister has been chairing crucial meetings on the issue.
Russian forces launched military operations in Ukraine on February 24, three days after Moscow recognized Ukraine's breakaway regions - Donetsk and Luhansk - as independent entities.
Several countries, including the UK, the US, Canada, and the European Union, have condemned Russia's military operations in Ukraine and imposed sanctions on Moscow. These countries have also promised military aid to Ukraine to fight Russia.
The US, Canada and European allies agreed to remove key Russian banks from the interbank messaging system, SWIFT, which means that the Russian banks won't be able to communicate securely with banks beyond Russia's borders. President Putin has also signed a decree on special economic measures against the US and its allies. (ANI)