TEHRAN - A group of Iranians residing in Ukraine have returned to their country on an Iran Air flight as the war in the eastern European nation rages on.
About 100 Iranian nationals including students, who left Ukraine via the Polish border, landed in Imam Khomeini International Airport on Tuesday.
Early on Tuesday, Foreign Ministry spokesman Saeed Khatibzadeh said in a tweet, “The first special flight to transfer compatriots from Poland to our country will take off a few hours later. So far, 300 students have been settled in Warsaw alone.”
He said the next flight will be adjusted according to the location of the remaining Iranians and will probably stop in three capitals so that we can bring more compatriots back to Iran.
He added that extensive efforts are being made by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Iranian embassies in Ukraine and neighboring countries to return all Iranians to the country.
On Monday, Iran’s Foreign Ministry said the country’s embassy in Kiev remains open as it “expressed regret over certain hype on social networks”.
Some 80,000 international students study in Ukraine, according to data from Ukraine’s Ministry of Education and Science. The largest number comes from India, followed by Morocco, Azerbaijan, Turkmenistan, and Nigeria.
On social media, students and their supporters have asked their home governments to charter planes out of the country, sharing locations where students were stranded, and offering advice about where to find shelter. Users have also circulated emergency contact numbers for stranded students from various countries, Press TV reported.