New Delhi: Two Air India planes departed on Saturday morning for Bucharest capital of Romania to evacuate Indians stranded in Ukraine following the Russian invasion on Ukraine. 
The Indian embassy in Ukraine has asked stranded Indians to take a taxi and any other vehicle to reach Romania check post near Ukraine with Indian flags. Thousands of Indian largely students have left the country, reached Romania, from there they have been taken to the Romania capital Bucharest. 
Indian stranded have reached Romania- Ukraine border, they have been taken to Bucharest by Indian Embassy officials of Romania. 
Air India flight, AI1943, took off from the Mumbai airport around 3.40 AM and is expected to land at the Bucharest airport around 10 AM  to bring stranded Indians. All Indians who crossed the Ukrainian border will be evacuated, said government officials. 
Sources said that Air India will operate more flights to Bucharest and Hungarian capital Budapest to bring Indians. 
After the Russian invasion, Ukraine has closed its airspace on Thursday. Many countries have now operated their flights to Bucharest and Budapest to evacuate their stranded citizens. 
Around 20,000 Indians, mainly students, are currently stranded in Ukraine, the officials said. 
Before the closure of the Ukrainian airspace, Air India had conducted one flight to the Ukrainian capital Kyiv on February 22 that brought 240 people were evacuated from Ukraine. 
After diplomatic negotiations with Romania and the Hungarian government, India has decided to send its flights to these two countries to airlift Indians. 
Air India said on Twitter that, Air India will be operating flights on B787 aircraft from Delhi and Mumbai to Bucharest (Romania) and Budapest (Hungary) on February 26 as special government charter flights to fly back stranded Indian citizens. 
Air India has always been playing a pivotal role, standing by the Nation during any crisis and now, inspired by the common mission shared by the Tata group and AI of serving the Nation and its people first. Our employees are only too eager to respond to the call of our Nation, driven by our values and conviction that if we don’t do it then who will?, Air India tweeted. 
The distance between Kyiv and the Romanian border checkpoint is approximately 600 kilometers and it takes anywhere between eight-and-a-half hours to 11 hours to cover it by road.
Bucharest is located approximately 500 kilometers from the Romanian border checkpoint and it takes anywhere between seven to nine hours to cover the distance by road.
The distance between Kyiv and the Hungarian border checkpoint is around 820 kilometers and it takes 12-13 hours to cover it by road, NDTV reported.