160 more Telugu students return home from Ukraine

Hyderabad/Amaravati: An additional 160 Telugu students have returned home from the war-torn Ukraine, officials said.

On Friday, the seventh day of evacuation of Indian citizens, 94 students of Telangana and 66 of Andhra Pradesh landed in Delhi and Mumbai.

The officials of the respective state governments in Delhi and Mumbai helped the students in reaching their destinations.

The students hailing from Telangana arrived in the two cities on Friday by 16 flights from Ukraine's neighbouring countries. The flights had taken off from Bucharest (Romania), Budapest (Hungary), Rzeszow (Poland), Kocise (Slovakia) and Suceava (Romania).

With this, 354 citizens from Telangana have returned home since the evacuation began on February 26.

Gaurav Uppal, Resident Commissioner, Telangana Bhavan and Additional DGP, Intelligence Anil Kumar interacted with Telangana students in Telangana Bhavan.

The government of Telangana has made arrangements to receive all returnees at Delhi and Mumbai airports. The state government also booked air tickets for them from Delhi and Mumbai to Hyderabad.

Meanwhile, with the arrival of 66 students from Andhra Pradesh on Friday, the total number of evacuees belonging to the state reached 270. After their arrival in Delhi and Mumbai, the state government officials booked tickets for them by connecting flights to destinations like Vijayawada, Visakhapatnam, Tirupati, Hyderabad and Bangalore.

The state government officials also received the students in Tirupati, Vijayawada and other airports and made arrangements for their onward journey to their hometowns.

Meanwhile, Venkat Medapati, Andhra Pradesh government's advisor on NRI affairs, who is in Budapest, met few local Telugu association volunteers, embassy coordinators and few Telugu students from Ukraine.

He said things have streamlined during the last two days.

"There are only 2 flights per day from tomorrow. Hope the embassy will arrange more flights over the next few days like today based on the surge in numbers at the border," he said.

Eighty more students from Andhra Pradesh are likely to arrive on Saturday.