VISAKHAPATNAM: Everything was going fine for the Indian students in Ukraine until Russia pressed a full-blown invasion on February 24. From suffering panic moments in my city (Ivano-Frankivsk) to crossing the Ukraine border, everything was ghastly terrifying and struggling.
I woke up around 5am on February 24 to the stentorian sounds coming from the neighbourhood. I never expected (Russian President Vladimir) Putin would wish good morning via missile attacks, airstrikes, and bomb shelling.
Airspace was closed the very same day, dashing the hopes of those students who had booked their tickets to India. I spent a couple of sleepless nights waiting for the siren so that we could rush to the bomb shelters. We used to sit ready, putting the jackets and boots on; so that if we hear some strange sound, we would rush to the bunkers.
Finally, we, a group of students, mustered courage and pooled Rs 20,000 for a private bus to leave IvanoFrankivsk city to the borders on February 26. After travelling for six to seven hours, the bus dropped us off 12km away from the border check-post due to a traffic jam.
With luggage in both hands, we trudged another four hours and reached the check-post. But our ordeal was far from over. The Ukrainians were opening the gates only for Ukrainians. There were separate queues for foreigners. Even when they opened the gates, they would allow only five to 10 students to pass and again, the gates remain closed for hours. There was no food or water. Even worse, there were no washrooms — a situation we had never anticipated. We later realised that our actual battle started only after we reached the border.
The little hope we had got strangled. At one point, we were mulling to go back to our place in Ivano and suffer in bunkers instead of waiting here for days under the sky in freezing cold. But we spent two days without food and water there. The Army was not cooperative, and they weren’t allowing Indians to cross.
Their first priority was Ukrainians even after knowing that an evacuation programme was being held for foreign students. They were violent towards us and clearly said: “Even your government is not helping you, so why are you expecting anything from us?”.
There was no shelter on the border, and we had to sleep in open areas in minus degree temperatures. After a lot of struggle, we were able to finish the immigration process and cross over to the Romanian side on February 28. (M Naga Pranav, a firstyear MBBS student at Ivano Frankivsk National Medical University, spoke to JUmamaheswara Rao)
‘Missing’ UP man calls after 4 days
Izahar Ahmed Khan heaved a huge sigh of relief on Tuesday after he finally heard from his son Azeem, a student in Ukraine’s Ivano who had been incommunicado for four days in the war-hit country, reports Ishita Mishra. Azeem told his father that he had managed to cross the border to Romania.
TOI had earlier reported that Azeem had been “missing” for four days after texting his parents that he was near the Romania border in a bid to escape from Ukraine. His phone had been switched off ever since. “He told me he stood under the open sky in temperatures as low as -8 degrees celsius to cross the border with an empty stomach for 30 hours,” Izahar told TOI.
MP boy dodged shelling by 30 mins
For MP’s Sabuj Biswas, 30 minutes turned out to be the difference between life and death in Kharkiv, reports Ramendra Singh. Spurred by his father’s pleas to get on the first train, he left an area that would be shelled a half-hour later, killing Indian student Naveen SG on Tuesday.
Sabuj’s father, Dr Sukumar Biswas, told TOIof his close shave. “We were terribly worried for him. He was living in bomb shelters for the past three days. We spoke over the phone sometimes but the network was very poor. This morning, he told me that three trains were available to move out of Kharkiv,” said Biswas, who lives in Dindori, 500km east of Bhopal. Sabuj is a final-year student.
