The second aircraft charged with repatriating the second group of Mexicans who have had to evacuate Ukraine took off on Tuesday, March 15, from Romania, with 63 nationals aboard the aircraft operated by the Mexican Air Force (FAM).
This was foreseen by Daniel Millán, Head of the Office of the Secretary for Foreign Affairs in a press conference, in which he detailed that the Boeing 737-800 would take off from Bucharest at 8:00am (local time in Romania), that is, around 0:00am Central Mexico time.
Although the number of returnees is 63, the number may increase, as there are those who make the decision to take the FAM flight at the last minute or decide to stay at the last minute, Millán added. And he did not rule out the possibility of some people of other Latin American nationalities taking such a flight.
The meeting was at Henri Coanda International Airport at 5:00 a.m., where more than fifty Mexicans and their families who left the conflict zone in Ukraine would gather to be repatriated to Mexico.
This second flight departed from Mexico City last Friday, March 11. Before arriving in Bucharest, he made two stops to refuel: the first was in Canada and the second was in Ireland, as was the first rescue mission. The trip lasted approximately 18 hours. The aircraft was also carrying 1.5 tons of food, blankets, mats and other humanitarian aid items.
In turn, Daniel Millán commented that at the moment he cannot say whether there will be a third rescue mission by the FAM to repatriate a third group of compatriates. In the first mission, 44 Mexicansb, 28 Ukrainians, seven Ecuadorians, one Peruvian, one Australian and one dog were evacuated. This first flight landed in Mexico City on Friday, March 4, with a total of 138 passengers.
“I'm Silvia Mercado. My baby Maria Cristina. He's a year old. We were in Kharkiv (Kharkiv). Her dad is Ukrainian. Her dad had to stay. That is, I think, the most difficult thing, because last night my baby kept asking about her dad,” commented one of the Mexican women who were evacuated from Ukraine.
Iliana Monárrez is another Mexican woman who lived in Kharkov with her Ukrainian husband and 20-year-old son, who was studying pedagogy at the University of that city. Both made the decision to leave Ukraine. “The way out for us was not that we didn't want to, it's that there was no human way out, because there were already infiltrators of the opposing army and they were shooting to kill,” he told the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
Meanwhile, Mexico's Ambassador to Ukraine, Olga García Guillén, explained that at least 30 Mexicans remain in Ukraine, as far as is known. Most, she explained, are women who have chosen to stay in the Slavic country next to their Ukrainian husbands. It should be recalled that Ukrainian males aged 18 to 60 cannot leave the country, as they are considered fit to voluntarily join Ukrainian forces and fight on the front lines.
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