Indian students, who arrived in Romania’s Bucharest city from Ukraine, said the national tricolor helped them, as well as some Pakistani and Turkish students, to safely cross various checkpoints in the war-torn country.
Indian students arrived in the Romanian city to catch special evacuation flights being operated under ‘Operation Ganga’ from neighboring countries of Ukraine. Air India, SpiceJet And Indigo is flying special evacuation flights.
“We were told in Ukraine that we would have no problem being Indian and carrying the Indian flag,” said a medical student from Odessa in southern Ukraine.
The students told how they bought spray paints from the markets to make Indian flags.
A student said, “I ran to the market, bought some paint spray and a curtain. Then I cut the curtain and spray-painted it to make the Indian tricolor.”
He said that even some Pakistani and Turkish students crossed the checkpoints using the Indian flag.
“Turkish and Pakistani students were also using Indian flags,” said a student. He said that Indian flag was very helpful for Pakistani, Turkish students.
students from Odessa moved from molodova to Romania.
One student said, “We booked a bus from Odessa and came to the Molodova border. The citizens of Molodovan were very nice. They provided us with free accommodation and taxis and buses to go to Romania.” Apart from this, he said that he did not face much problem in Molodova as the Indian embassy had already made arrangements.
The students also expressed their gratitude to the Indian Embassy officials who arranged for their food and shelter as they waited for their flights back to India.
The student said, “When a student is coming here, he is first taken to a proper shelter and food is provided during registration, while the date on which they will be evacuated is finalised. ”
Earlier on Monday, the Government of India had issued four central cabinet Ministers of neighboring countries of Ukraine to coordinate evacuation efforts after a high-level meeting chaired by the Prime Minister Narendra Modi,