Air India begins evacuation as Ukraine crisis mounts

New Delhi, February 22

Air India started an air bridge on Tuesday to bring back Indians from Ukraine even as Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman cautioned that the rising prices of crude oil due to the crisis could pose a threat to the country’s financial stability.

Also read: Ukraine crisis: Three-fold hike in flight fares, students in a fix

Stock markets suffered a collateral damage with the Sensex slipping 382.91 points to settle at 57,300.68 and Nifty falling 114.45 points to end at 17,092.20.

Putin gets house nod to use force

Russia’s Upper House of Parliament has given President Vladimir Putin permission to use military force outside the country. That could presage a broader attack on Ukraine after the US said an invasion was already underway there.

• Moscow ratifies treaties with breakaway regions
• Germany halts Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline approval

An Air India plane carrying around 240 Indians from Ukraine landed at the Delhi airport on Tuesday night. The government has allowed private flights and chartered aircraft to evacuate about 20,000 Indians, including some in the breakaway regions of Donetsk and Luhansk which were recognised by Russia.

India has said de-escalation of Russia-Ukraine tensions should be an immediate priority and that all sides should exercise utmost restraint. “We cannot afford to have a military escalation,” India’s Permanent Representative to UN Ambassador TS Tirumurti told an emergency meeting of the UN Security Council on Ukraine on Monday night.

Immediate fallout of Putin’s recognition of the two breakaway regions and reportedly moving in Russian troops to secure them was Germany announcing a halt to Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline from Russia. Even as gas prices surged, Putin said Moscow would not interrupt any of its existing gas supplies.

The US vowed to announce its own set of strong sanctions after the White House called the Russian recognition of the two regions as an invasion. The UK slapped sanctions on Gennady Timchenko and two other billionaires with close links to Putin. The UK also sanctioned five Russian banks which is the “first tranche, the first barrage of what we are prepared to do,” said Johnson. Top EU officials said sanctions on several Russian officials and banks financing the Russian armed forces were on the cards. EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said the bloc would also “target trade from the two breakaway regions to and from the EU”.