ISLAMABAD: Pakistan on Tuesday sent a special flight to Poland to bring back more than 300 of its nationals who were evacuated from Ukraine after Russia invaded the Eastern European country, confirmed a Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) official in a statement.
Russia attacked Ukraine from the north, east and south on February 24, pounding several cities including Kyiv, Kharkiv and the port of Mariupol.
The invasion triggered the worst refugee crisis in Europe since World War Two, provoked outrage across the world, and led to heavy sanctions on Moscow.
A PIA spokesperson, Abdullah Khan, said that a Boeing 777 flew out of Lahore in the morning and was going to reach Warsaw in the next few hours.
"The special flight will bring back over 300 Pakistani nationals and land in Islamabad," he informed.
Khan said the plane was sent to Poland on the instructions of the foreign ministry.
Last week, foreign office spokesperson Asim Iftikhar told Arab News it was coordinating with Pakistani missions in Poland, Romania and Hungary to complete the evacuation process.
However, Pakistan's embassy in Kyiv maintained in a recent statement it was becoming increasingly difficult for it to sustain itself and evacuate Pakistani nationals trapped in Ukraine in the midst of Russian airstrikes.
