Speaking to journalists at Humberto Delgado Airport, the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Augusto Santos Silva detailed that "two groups crossed the Ukrainian border with Moldova and then headed to Romania, where they converged".

"From Romania, from Bucharest, it was possible to organize an air connection", he said.

Santos Silva also indicated that some people stayed on Romanian soil.

"Some of them [people] stayed in Romania, first of all the ambassador [to Ukraine], the military [...] and other embassy employees, who are housed in Romania, while there are no conditions for them to return to Kiev," said the minister.

In the arrivals area of ​​the Humberto Delgado Airport yesterday, Ricardo Cotovio, one of the Portuguese repatriates, said he was "relieved" to be landing in Portugal.

Unexpected

"It's not every day you're in a war situation. I wasn't expecting it, because the indications we had […] is that nothing was going to happen," he noted.

Edgar Cardoso also said that "it was horrible" what he went through in Ukraine, feeling very "nervous".

"I decided to leave and it was the best at the time. […] I watched the first explosions. It was 4:50am, I was awake. It was horrible", he reported.

Edgar Cardoso also said that "he had a suitcase packed for a week" and that "nobody expected it to get to the point it did".

Augusto Santos Silva pointed out that 75 Portuguese and Portuguese-Ukrainian citizens have already left Ukraine, adding that the two students who were having difficulties in crossing the border to Poland had already made the crossing.

"Things went quite well. I have to thank and already thanked by phone the lady ambassador of Ukraine in Lisbon, who was tireless when we flagged this problem", he noted.

The Minister of Foreign Affairs warned that the Government is "working with several [citizens] who wish to leave".

"[…] There are others who want to leave... We are talking about four dozen people that we have to support in leaving", he stressed.