The 27 Malayali students that were among the 219 Indians who landed in Mumbai in the first Air India evacuation flight said they were relieved but concerned for the safety of their colleagues stuck in Ukraine.
Air India flight AI-1944 from Bucharest, Romania had touched down at Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj International Airport in Mumbai by 7.50 pm.
Angela Maria Isaac was one of the Malayalis that arrived in the first batch.
"We reached safe thanks to Kerala government and the Indian government," Angela told Manorama News in a video message. She is a fourth-year student at Bukovinian State Medical University in Chernivtsi.
According to Angela, at least 200 students from various colleges in Chernivtsi were on the first flight. "Chernivtsi is relatively safer now so they are evacuating people from there so that others from tense areas can be brought there," she said.
Meanwhile, Jaikrishnan and Harshith, natives of Chittur in Palakkad district were also excited to exit the war-torn country.
"We hope others that are stuck can also be brought home safely at the earliest," they said.
The Air India flight had left from Mumbai for Bucharest at 3.38 am Saturday and landed there at around 10.45 am (Indian Standard Time). It departed for Mumbai at 1.55 pm (IST).
The Ukrainian airspace has been closed for civil aircraft since Thursday morning, because of which evacuation flights are operating out of Bucharest and Budapest.
Indian nationals who reached the Ukraine-Romania border by road have been taken to Bucharest by Indian government officials so that they can be evacuated on the Air India flights.
At least 16,000 Indian students attend various colleges in Ukraine.
