IAF heading to Romania for stranded Indians in Ukraine

New Delhi: Still reeling from a student's death in Ukraine, India intensified rescuing of citizens entrapped in the remote corners of the nation.

New Delhi has been in contact with national heads in that part of the world to coordinate the evacuation of remaining students. One report said more than 12,000 of them making about 60 per cent have left the nation.

At 4 am on Wednesday morning, Indian Air Force's C-17 craft left for Ukraine. The transport craft will ferry home Indian nationals heading to the border regions, according to Foreign Secretary Harsh Vardhan Shringla.

"At 4 am on Wednesday, a C-17 aircraft will fly to Romania to evacuate the stranded Indian students," Shringla said, IANS reports.

Shringla confirmed that no Indian is stranded in Kiev as of now. He said that students had been advised to head towards the western Ukraine to seek safety wherever outside the nation.

The nations they were directed include Hungary, Slovakia, Romania, Poland and Moldova. About 7,700 Indians exited through these routes, according to him.

"Prime Minister Narendra Modi has expressed deep anguish over the killing of an Indian student by Russian shelling in Kharkiv and we have not just reiterated our demands with Russia and Ukraine's envoys in Delhi, but also in those countries through diplomatic and military channels for the safe return of Indians," Shringla said.

India's first flight carrying humanitarian aid including medicines, medical equipment, and relief materials left for Ukraine via Poland Tuesday morning.

Shringla added that another flight would leave on Wednesday with second tranche of relief materials.

Another flight will leave on Wednesday carrying a second consignment, also through Poland, Shringla said.

Over next three days, 26 IAF flights have been scheduled to operate.