An Air India special flight, AI1946, from Kyiv in Ukraine landed in Delhi around 11.30 pm on Tuesday.
Those on board were mostly students who were returning after the Indian embassy in Ukraine issued advisories asking them to leave Ukraine temporarily.
On Tuesday night, families crowded around the arrival gates well in advance, waiting for returning students.
Dhruv Malhotra, a fifth-year student of medicine in the city of Kharkiv in Ukraine, was among those who returned. “Right now, it’s peaceful and the situation is under control in Kharkiv and Kyiv. But the tension seems to be building up, and we were advised to leave,” he said.
Malhotra, who is from Vrindavan, said that his friends are also headed back soon, some on the Air India flights scheduled for the next few days, and others who have booked on other airlines. In addition to the one that landed on Tuesday, Air India is operating two special flights between Kyiv and Delhi on February 24 and 26.
