In a major setback for India's mission of bringing back the stranded Indians from Ukraine, the country that has been invaded by Russia on Thursday after Vladimir Putin had declared a war, an Air India plane that was en route to the Ukrainian capital of Kyiv to repatriate Indians had made U-turn after Ukraine had closed its airspace. 

According to PTI, an Air India plane had taken off from Delhi in the morning hours of Thursday - February 24 to Kyiv to bring back Indians. However, the aircraft had made a U-turn ahead of approaching Ukrainian territory and returning back to Delhi after Ukraine had closed its airspace amid the conflict with Russia. After the Air India flight had departed from Delhi, the Ukrainian authorities had issued a Notice to Airmen (NOTAM), which had stated that flights of civil aircraft within Ukraine are restricted due to potential hazards for civil aviation.

The Indian government officials have said that following the notice, Air India and the government had decided to call back the plane to Delhi and while it was called back, the plane was flying over the Iranian airspace. An airline spokesperson said the Air India flight AI 1947 is returning as a NOTAM has been issued at Kyiv. The flight started from the Indira Gandhi International Airport at around 7.30 am for Boryspil International Airport in Kyiv. 

On the other hand, a Ukraine International Airlines flight from Kyiv had landed at the Delhi airport at around 7.45 am on Thursday and it has been reported that there were 182 Indian nationals on board the flight and the majority of them were students. Had the returned Air India flight landed in Kyiv, it would have become the second special flight from India to bring back the stranded Indians in Ukraine.

The first flight was operated on February 22 and it had brought back 240 people. Air India had on February 19 announced that it would operate three flights between India and Ukraine on February 22, 24, and 26. It is pertinent to note that the live air traffic site Flightradar24 had shown that the Ukrainian airspace was completely isolated by the countries as they have begun avoiding flying over the war-torn country. On Thursday, Russian President Vladimir Putin had ordered the Russian troops to invade Ukraine with his aim of conquering the former Soviet colony from what he has been alleged as the western influence. 

Putin has authorized a special operation in Ukraine's Donbas region. The Russian troops had invaded days after Putin had declared two Ukrainian regions Luhansk and Donetsk as independent territories. These regions had stationed Russian-backed separatist forces predominantly and they had campaigned Kremlin's propaganda of standing against the West and NATO. Russia had raised concern over Ukraine's move towards the West as Putin disliked his neighbouring nation getting befriended with the West supported defence coalition.

It has fueled the crisis and Russia had begun to amass the troops across its border with Ukraine, which was the starting point of what has now become Russia's invasion. The invasion had received immediate condemnation from the United States and its allies, which have threatened to enact full-scale sanctions in response to Russian military aggression. Ukraine's Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba had tweeted on his official page that peaceful Ukrainian cities are under the strike and called the situation 'a war of aggression'. 

An adviser for Ukraine Interior Minister, Anton Gerashchenko, said Russia's invasion has begun with missile strikes on Kyiv. Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelensky had moved to enact martial law with the government ministers accusing Russia of launching a full-scale invasion. Gerashchenko said Russian troops had landed in the city of Odessa and were crossing the border in Kharkiv, which is the second-largest city of Ukraine.