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Over 260 Russians leave US on board Aeroflot’s return flight from New York

The estimated time of arrival to the Pulkovo airport in St. Petersburg is 11:45 Moscow time

© Marina Lystseva/TASS

NEW YORK, April 15. /TASS/. Russian citizens, who decided to return to their home country from the United States, left the country on board Aeroflot flight from New York to St. Petersburg, a TASS correspondent reported from the JFK airport on Wednesday.

According to the departures screen in the airport’s Terminal 1, the flight took off at approximately 20:07 local time (02:07 Moscow time on Wednesday).

The estimated time of arrival to the Pulkovo airport in St. Petersburg is 11:45 Moscow time. After that, the plane will travel to Moscow’s Sheremetyevo airport. The estimated time of arrival is yet unknown. Aeroflot employees said the plane has more than 260 people on board.

According to the Russian Consulate General in New York, a total of 276 people have registered for the flight. The diplomatic mission told TASS that "all necessary measures have been taken to bring Russians, who had found themselves in a difficult situation in the United States, back to their motherland."

Igor Kochan, the president of the Russian Youth of America, told TASS that at least four of the plane's passengers were Russian schoolchildren, who went to the United States to study and found themselves in a difficult situation amid the novel coronavirus pandemic.

"Yes, at least four schoolchildren involved in exchange programs are departing to Moscow aboard the current flight," he said. "Those are Yana, Taisia, Yelizaveta and Polina."

On Tuesday, the same aircraft brought a group of US citizens to New York from Moscow.

Russian Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said in a commentary released on Tuesday that several dozens of Russian schoolchildren had been stuck in the United States amid the coronavirus pandemic. She said that the US Department of State had informed the Russian embassy in Washington about that providing no further detail. According to Zakharova, 74 Russian high school students are staying in the United States under the US Department of State’s Secondary School Student Program alone.

Russian Ambassador to the United States Anatoly Antonov said on April 3 that over 2,000 Russian citizens who were in the United States informed the Russian Embassy in Washington they were willing to return to their homeland.

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