ANKARA 

Turkiye's national flag carrier Turkish Airlines on Thursday evacuated members of the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) special monitoring mission to Ukraine. 

A special evacuation flight which departed from Russia's coastal city of Sochi airlifted 130 passengers working in Ukraine's breakaway regions of Donetsk and Luhansk, sources told Anadolu Agency.

The passengers of different nationalities will fly to their home countries after arriving in Istanbul.


Russia's war on Ukraine, which began on Feb. 24, has met international outrage with the EU, US and UK, among others, implementing tough financial sanctions on Moscow.

According to UN figures, 227 civilians have been killed and 525 injured in Ukraine since the start of the war. Ukrainian authorities, however, put the death toll at over 2,000.

More than 1 million people have fled Ukraine to neighboring countries, the UN Refugee Agency said.