Departure place of first flight repatriating Vietnamese from Ukraine may be changed

ABO/NDO - The first flight to carry Vietnamese citizens home from Ukraine may take off from Bucharest instead of Warsaw, Dinh Viet Son, Deputy Director of the Civil Aviation Authority of Vietnam (CAAV), said on March 4 morning.

The CAAV may announce the adjustment on March 4, Son stated, citing the Foreign Ministry’s information on March 3 evening as saying that not many Vietnamese people had travelled to Poland from Ukraine, and few of them have the desire to return to Vietnam.

Earlier, the aviation sector planned to operate the first flight repatriating Vietnamese people in Ukraine from Warsaw on March 5 morning, which will be conducted by Vietnam Airlines.

Illustrative image (Photo: VNA).

Meanwhile, the second flight will go from Bucharest and is planned to be conducted by Bamboo Airways.

Data from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs show that there are about 7,000 Vietnamese people in Ukraine, mostly in the three major cities of Kyiv (800), Kharkiv (3,000), and Odessa (3,000).

The CAAV said the repatriation plan now is that the citizens in Ukraine will go by road to neighbouring countries, with those in Kyiv moving to Poland, in Kharkiv to Russia, and in Odessa to Moldova or Romania, and then flights will be arranged to bring them from these countries back home.

As it is unable to operate flights to Ukraine, which is currently a war zone, airlines have planned flights to destinations in nearby countries such as Poland, Romania, Hungary, Slovakia, Russia, and Belarus.

Apart from these destinations, Vietnamese carriers are also ready to fly to any other places under the Government’s plan in the principle of ensuring safety and the best possible conditions for Vietnamese people and their families in Ukraine to return to the homeland, according to the CAAV.

(Source: NDO)