The first group of people displaced by the war in Ukraine arrives in Mexico

A Mexican displaced by the war in Ukraine, in the city of Siret, on the border with Romania. Galo Cañas (CUARTOSCURO)

A group of 81 people displaced by the war in Ukraine is already in Mexican territory.

It is the first contingent that has escaped from the conflict zone and has landed in the country after leaving Bucharest, the Romanian capital, on Thursday.

The Mexican Air Force flight allowed 44 Mexicans and 28 Ukrainian family members to be evacuated.

In addition, the departure of seven Ecuadorians, a Peruvian and an Australian was facilitated.

"Families that were at risk of the bombing of Kiev will soon be in Mexico City," Marcelo Ebrard, Secretary of Foreign Affairs, announced on his social networks.

The evacuation operation took place through a humanitarian flight ordered by the president, Andrés Manuel López Obrador, and involved the Ministry of National Defense, the Foreign Ministry and diplomatic personnel from the Embassies of Mexico in Ukraine and Romania.

The group is made up of about twenty Mexicans who were relocated to the city of Ivano-Frankivsk, on the western flank of Ukraine, before the war broke out, and were transferred a week ago by land to the Romanian city of Siret, just in border.

A small contingent left Ukrainian soil under their own power over the weekend and the rest arrived on another bus arranged by Mexican authorities after leaving Kiev on Monday.

This last group was in Romania for only a few hours, before being taken to board the plane,

The flight of the Mexican Air Force with families repatriated from Ukraine. SRE

"This war has been a nightmare," Ivette Rossano, one of the evacuated Mexicans, told this newspaper last Tuesday.

Rossano has left Ukraine with her nine-year-old stepson and her husband, who has Australian and Ukrainian nationality, and her dog.

It took her three trips to cover the nearly 600 kilometers between Kiev and the Romanian border in a rental car, plus a long wait to leave the country at the border crossing.

The accumulation of difficulties and the need to gather as many people as possible forced the Mexican Air Force plane to wait almost a week at the Bucharest airport.

Those who arrived first settled in a hotel and others spent the night in a gym that served as a hostel in Siret.

“No Mexican is going to stay in the conflict zone,

The Foreign Ministry is aware that between 100 and 130 Mexicans have fled the conflict, although some have chosen to remain in neighboring countries such as Poland, Hungary and Romania.

The record prior to the combat is that there were some 98 families of nationals, who formed a Mexican community of around 220 members.

"It is difficult to give an exact figure," says Jennifer Feller, general director of Political Planning at the Foreign Ministry, due to the constant movement of displaced people.

The diplomat comments that the efforts to offer consular protection began in December.

“Getting them out safe and sound has been our top priority,” she adds.

The FAM plane has already landed in Bucharest.

Operation in progress.

Tomorrow we expect the arrival of more families evacuated from Kiev.

Embassies in Poland and Romania supporting Olga García Guillén, Ambassador of Mexico in Ukraine, as instructed by President López Obrador.

pic.twitter.com/OTOT3SXQFm

– Marcelo Ebrard C. (@m_ebrard) February 28, 2022

The breakdown of passengers is that there are 28 men and 16 women from Mexico, as well as 23 Ukrainians and five Ukrainians, according to the authorities.

Since last weekend, Mexico had coordinated with a dozen Latin American countries to join efforts to protect their citizens who had been trapped after the Russian invasion.

Ecuador has more than 700 compatriots registered in Ukraine and Peru, about 300. The Government of López Obrador has said that it is possible that in the coming days there will be more flights to facilitate the departure of compatriots and citizens of Latin America, although they have not yet been confirmed. confirmed.

Authorities have urged Mexicans seeking to return from Russia to take a state-run Aeroflot flight from Moscow to Cancún scheduled for Saturday at 8:30 a.m.

In just over a week, more than a million people have fled Ukraine after the Russian invasion, according to the United Nations (UN).

The UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) warns that this figure may rise in the coming days to four million people who leave for neighboring countries.

“Unless there is an immediate end to the conflict, it is possible that millions more will be forced to flee,” the UNHCR has lamented, in the midst of what is heading to be the largest exodus in Europe since the Second World War.

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