VISAKHAPATNAM: Srija Reddy, a first year medical student of Kharkiv National Medical University in Ukraine, landed in Vizag on Friday after days of struggle. The native of Rampuram village near Pendurthi was stuck in the war-hit country along with several others, and took shelter under bunkers for over three days without sufficient food and water.
“I contacted Indian embassy officials on February 28 and narrated our ordeal. As per their instructions, around 20 of is reached Kharkiv railway station and were trying to catch the train, when there was bombing near the railway station. We were forced to travel in cabs for some distance, we walked miles in freezing temperatures to reach Poland border where we waited for several hours in the open before being allowed to cross over,” she said.
Srija, along with her friend Likitha who also studied in the same university, were received by government officials and their parents at the airport. Four more students — Purusothamm M, N Harsha Teja and S Jitendra Kumar from Vizianagaram, and Thota Sai Vamsi from Garivide — also reached Vizag. Seven more students from Vizianagaram have already left Ukraine and will reach Vizag in a couple of days.
Meanwhile, 11 students reached Tirupati on Friday afternoon. The students said the tricolour helped them during trying times by protecting them like a safety shield and filling confidence in them. “Wherever we got stranded, we got the ‘go ahead’ when Ukrainian officials saw the Indian flag which we were carrying with us,” a student said.
Tirupati MP M Gurumoorthy, in a letter to external affairs minister S Jaishankar, urged him to rescue about 250 Telugu students, including about 180 from Tirupati, who are held up in Belarus.
