Man flies 5 pets with him to India from Ukraine; 'special permission from Hardeep Puri'

Ukraine-Russia war: Ranjeet Reddy landed in Delhi on Monday. (Image credit: @ANI/Twitter)

An Indian man arrived in Delhi on Monday morning from war-torn Ukraine with five pets. Ranjeet Reddy is among the thousands of Indians who have taken evacuation flights to return home after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

He said he got a special permission from Union Minister Hardeep Singh Puri to bring his pet dog in the flight.

"We have to appreciate the efforts of the Indian embassy. They have been very helpful throughout. I got special permission from Union Minister Hardeep Singh Puri for my dog. We have brought 5 pets with us,” he told news agency ANI, keeping his dog in his lap.

India launched "Operation Ganga" on February 26 to evacuate its nationals and sent four Union ministers as Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s “special envoys” to Ukraine's neighbours to coordinate the exercise. The ministers are Puri, Jyotiraditya Scindia, Kiren Rijiju and VK Singh.

While Scindia is taking care of evacuation efforts from Romania and Moldova Rijiju went to Slovakia. Puri is in Hungary and Singh in Poland to manage the evacuation.

“With the last flight yesterday (Sunday), we completed evacuation of 6,177 students from Hungary. Five flights yesterday were almost full. A big thank you for all assistance we received from the government of Hungary, specially Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade, Ministry of Interior and other agencies,” Puri tweeted on Monday.

The government on Saturday said its main focus now is on the evacuation of around 700 Indian students stranded in the eastern Ukrainian city of Sumy which has been witnessing bombings and airstrikes.

Over 15,000 Indian nationals have been brought back in 76 flights under “Operation Ganga”.

(With inputs from ANI)