Turkiye announces evacuation plan for Turks from Ukraine via land borders

Baku, February 26, AZERTAC Turkish deputy foreign minister on Friday announced the evacuation plan for Turkish nationals in Ukraine via land borders, according to Anadolu Agency. “We have started our evacuation operations by land from Ukraine,” Yavuz Selim Kiran wrote on Twitter. Turkiye is “in close cooperation with the countries of the region to facilitate the passage of our citizens,” who will either leave through the ministry’s evacuation operations or by their own means via the border gates. Kiran also detailed the practices that Turkish nationals who will leave Ukraine will be subject to when they pass through the land border gates. Earlier, Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said that the evacuation process of Turkish nationals in Ukraine is underway. "We can no longer evacuate [our citizens] by air because the airspace is closed, we cannot evacuate by the sea too, so we started evacuation through the land by buses," Cavusoglu said. He added that nearly 5,000 Turkish citizens have already returned to the country following warnings the Turkish Foreign Ministry has made since Feb. 12, and they have reached nearly 16,000 citizens in Ukraine by phone.