India sends relief and med supplies to war-hit Ukraine

India is sending humanitarian aid and medical supplies to war-hit Ukraine after Russia launched a full-blown invasion last week.

According to officials, a team of the National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) is sending 100 tents and 2,500 blankets to the Indian Air Force’s Hindon airbase. From there, it will be sent via a flight to Romania, the neighbouring country of Ukraine. The flight is scheduled to leave at 10.15 hours.

More flights carrying relief material are also set to depart from Delhi to Poland at 11am and 1pm today. The loading of the consignments was already done last night.

The decision to provide humanitarian relief to Ukraine during a high-level meeting chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Monday. During this meeting, the Centre also decided to send the four Union ministers to Ukraine to assist the evacuation efforts.

Ukraine is staring at a major humanitarian crisis after Russian forces launched a full-blown invasion of Ukraine on February 24. On Tuesday, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said 300 civilians, including at least 14 children, have been killed so far.

With the Ukrainian airspace shut due to the Russian invasion, the Indian government has been ferrying Indian citizens to the Romanian border. From there, the evacuated Indians are then taken to the capital Bucharest which is a nine hours drive from the border. The evacuated Indians then board an Air India flight which then takes off to India.