Around 200 Indian students who were studying in the Ukrainian city of Lviv moved to a border near Poland on February 25 and February 26. Parents of some students from Kerala confirmed that their children couldn’t cross the Ukrainian border to reach Poland, where they expected to be evacuated. “These students are sitting on the road waiting to cross the border, but they have not been able to do it. Their supplies are running low and they don't even have enough water,” PM Najeeb, whose son Muhammed Jiyad is in the group, told TNM.
Wilson of Malayatoor in Ernakulam district confirmed that his son Haris Wilson, a student at the Lviv Medical University, was one of the 21 students who reached Poland on Friday in a taxi. He said the students were asked to leave the taxi they were travelling in and they had to walk around 10 km to reach Poland. However, Najeeb said they were stuck at the border as no arrangements were yet made by the embassy to help them cross the border into Poland.
“My nephew who is studying in Kyiv cannot be reached. When we last heard from him, the shops were closing in the city and they barely had enough food,” Najeeb added.
The Indian Embassy’s latest advisory tells Indians in Ukraine to not go to border areas yet. While some evacuation efforts have begun, the Indian government is not operating flights from Ukraine as all airports are closed inside the country, but from neighbouring countries like Poland and Romania. However, travelling to these countries is a dangerous prospect at this point.
Apart from the students who moved to the Poland border, hundreds of them are trapped in other cities of Ukraine. Ajith, another medical student from Telangana who is in Kharkiv right now, says that the nearest border to them is the Russian border. “To get to the Polish border is up to a 14-hour journey by road. But because of the Russian attacks, how can we travel for 12-14 hours on the road? Who will take the risk? We really want to tell the Indian government to focus on east Ukraine also, because hundreds of us are stranded here,” he says. Ajith spent the last two days on and off in a bunker, and when he spoke to TNM, he had come to his flat at his own risk.
Third year medical student Sarya, who hails from Kollam in Kerala, tells TNM that she is packing her belongings because she and other students may be asked to board a bus to the nearby cities Chernivtsi and Uzhhorod any time now. “It could be in the next half an hour or even tomorrow. We don’t know. But we are just packing our bags and being ready,” she says.
Sarya is in Vinnytsia, and recounts the anxiety she and her friends felt on Friday, February 25, when they heard multiple sirens go off. “We have been trying to call the Indian Embassy. But they tell us that if we want to leave, we can do so at our own risk. We are seeking help from everywhere we can but do not know what to do. Some contractors are arranging buses for us to go to nearby cities where it is safer, so that seems to be our only option right now,” she says. She adds that they are also stressed because of reports of many Indian students being stranded at the border of Poland.
Students told TNM that many of them are stranded in bunkers. Dev Nandu, a student at Bogomolets National Medical University told TNM that around 600 Indian students are inside the bunker at his hostel. “200 of us are from Kerala. Until yesterday shelling was only in the early hours of morning until 7 am. Since yesterday the shelling has been continuous. Some of us, accompanied by the army, just stepped out to buy food and provisions from outside the university. A lot of the students are falling sick and having breathing difficulties and fever due to the dust in the bunker” he said.
He added that there is only enough food for one more day. “We have no information from the Ministry of External Affairs. Our contractors are trying hard to establish contact. Both Poland and Hungary are very far from where we are and it is impossible to travel to the borders under the present circumstances. All of us just want to return to India at any cost,” he said.
Mary (not her real name), a Kerala native in Vinnytsia, has a similar story. Having been ushered into a bunker on Friday night around 8 pm, she stayed there till 3 am after which she came back to the hostel. But she went back to the bunkers in the morning and stayed there with around 400 people, before coming back to the hostel for some time due to fatigue. “There are around 1,200 students in the university I study in, and since trains are not running, our only option to reach a bordering country to avail evacuation is by bus. The nearest bordering country is Romania. But right now, who will take us by bus? We need 40-50 buses for all of us. The education agency we are in touch with is telling us evacuation is not possible from where we are, and for now, we need to stay put,” she says.
While Mary and her friends have food and other provisions for now, they worry about how long they will last. “The shops are open till about 4 pm, and after that, they shut the lights in the entire city. We are not allowed to switch on lights in the hostel after 6-7 pm due to fear that the buildings will become targets,” she shares. “We really just want to go home. We don't know how long we will have food, water, electricity. We are physically and mentally exhausted.”
Meanwhile, in the latest advisory, the Ministry of External Affairs has warned that border crossing at Zahony-Uzhhorod border into Hungary is being allowed only by bus and van and those walking to the border will not be allowed to cross in Hungary. The embassy has also recommended Indians not to try to enter Hungary through other borders as there is a long waiting time at the checkpoints and no Indian embassy official is present to facilitate entry into the Hungarian side.
For those close to the Kpp Tysa border, contact Dr Amrik Dhilllon of Uzhhorod National University at +380 63 725 1523 or Ankur from the Indian Embassy at +0363046445927.
For those who have reached Budapest, contact Sanjay Sharma at +l36305990509 or Radhe Lal from the Embassy at +36308644595.