Around 10.30 pm on Monday, February 28, Dr Pooja Praharaj, who is a student coordinator in Kharkiv, Ukraine’s second-largest city which is seeing heavy aggression by Russian troops, was standing with some other students to get some food supplies. “We heard a huge blast – the walls and the glass around us starting shaking. We were so afraid. We are 5-6 members who are voluntarily working and we got very scared. Then we could smell fire… people who are in bunkers will be safe, but we are running out of money and food. Yesterday, we literally had to fight with Ukrainian people to take food for the 1,500 people we are feeding daily,” Dr Pooja told journalist Aditya Raj Kaul.
Even as Indians stuck in Ukraine have started returning to India on government flights, thousands of Indian students are still stranded in the country, unable to travel to bordering countries to avail safety and evacuation measures. Russian troops are advancing on the Ukrainian capital of Kyiv and on Kharkiv, where Naveen Shekharappa Gyanagoudar, a medical student from Karnataka, died while standing in line to buy food during the shelling on Tuesday, March 1. Kharkiv also witnessed a missile strike by Russia on a government building at Freedom Square which is in the centre of the city.
Twenty-one-year-old Naveen’s death has exacerbated the panic among many Indian students still in Kharkiv, who are unable to leave due to heavy bombing, many of them stuck in bunkers where food and water are fast running out. A very distressed Akhila said that she is with around 2,500 students in the bunker of an apartment.
“This morning we came out to try and get taxis to leave, as informed by the embassy. But we saw that when some Ukrainians were crossing the road to get a taxi, a blast happened there and we ran back to the bunker. We cannot move out. We got to know that an Indian also died while waiting at a supermarket,” she said, referring to Naveen. “The embassy has asked us to move away from Kharkiv, but how can we? There is firing and shelling everywhere,” she added.
Prasad Nampally and two of his friends were busy packing when he spoke to TNM. The fifth year medical student said that taxi drivers are quoting exorbitant prices to ferry people in this situation. “For a distance that usually costs 200-300 Ukrainian Hryvnia, they are asking 3,000-3,500,” he said. Alexander Jacob John, another medical student in Kharkiv, also corroborated the same. “This morning at 8.01 am, we heard an explosion just one kilometre from where I live. So, we decided to leave without help from the embassy. We are four people, each paying 1000 Ukrainian Hryvnia per head to go to the train station… We hope we are able to catch a train to Lviv from there,” Alexander says.
Prasad, however, added that at this point, more than worrying about money, they are afraid for their lives. “Even if we have the money, we don’t know how we will get there safely. We were planning on taking the train to Lviv and then a bus from there to Hungary. We are also hearing that Russian troops have blocked roads,” he said.
Dr Pooja also told Aditya Raj Kaul that there are around 3,000-4,000 Indian students stuck in Kharkiv. In a recording of the conversation that TNM has accessed, she says, “I have been tweeting a lot to PM Modi and to everybody possible, the foreign minister, everybody. But there has been no response yet. They know that we are around 2,000 km from the border that they are opening. What if while going there, there is bombing? If we go in a bus and there is a blast, who will be responsible for that? To evacuate over 3,000 students, we need 80 50-seater buses. Who will give 80 buses to us? There aren’t even 40 buses in our city, how will we go?”
Meanwhile, in Zaporizhzhya, where the state Medical University has many Indian students enrolled, Dr Divya Sunitha Raj, Associate Professor, said that two trains have been arranged after coordination with the governor. “Around 1,500 students have left Zaporizhzhya on one train and another 400 are on another train. By this evening they should reach Uzhhorod. They will then be moved to Slovakia. We are coordinating the movement of around 275 students from Kharkiv to Lviv and then Uzhhorod too,” she said.
Prasad notes that while there are some shops open, there are hour-long queues and limited supplies. Meanwhile for those stuck in bunkers in Kharkiv, supplies are dwindling quickly.
Dr Pooja told Aditya that godowns are shut and are not giving them food. “None of the Ukrainians are coming out to open the godowns and give us things. So, yesterday I went [to a shop] to buy 50 kg of rice, 50 bread packets, and 50 bottles of oil because we are running out of resources. I was literally fighting with the women there to get our supplies – they were right on their part because for such a bulk order we should go to the godowns. But no one is ready to open the godown or step out of their house,” she said.
She added that people have to wait for two or three hours to buy necessities. "It has been horrible. In shops also we are told by Ukrainians that the things are being kept for them first. Many girls have run out of sanitary pads, many have got urinary tract infection. They are not even allowed to use the bathroom."
Some Indians are also facing racism in the foreign country when they try to access services. Akshay Sudheer, another medical student, told TNM that he was barred from boarding eight trains in Kyiv on Monday. “When we asked why we weren’t allowed to board, they called the security. He pointed a gun towards us and also threatened us with a rod. We aren’t in a situation to record what’s happening to us and question them. We’re all trying hard to leave and reach the border. The Ukrainians have reached a stage where they are infuriated when they see Indian students now. First priority is being given to Ukrainians. It was late in the night when we finally got a train and left for Lviv. We are now trying to get another train which will take us closer to the border,” he said.
A person named Dhirendra recounted a similar experience on Twitter on Tuesday – he said that he had been at the Kyiv railway station since the day before but was not being allowed to board any train.
Sir we are sitting at railway station from yesterday. And they are not allowing us to board the train and you are telling to leave immediately.
— Dhirendra kumar (@dhirusam291) March 1, 2022
While some planes have started bringing Indians back home, news channels are filled with videos of the returnees chanting “Bharat Mata ki jai” and profusely thanking the government. However, Dr Tarun, the dean of a medical university in Kharkiv who is coordinating help for Indians stranded in Ukraine from another city in Europe, urged the Indian media not to glorify evacuation.
“We are hearing from some sources that there is a 64-km long convoy of military equipment currently moving towards Ukraine. It is going to rain havoc in Ukraine if that is true. It is good that the Indian government is evacuating but there are also people who are in really, really grave situations. We need to get them out because by no means will they be able to cross [the border] because even during the peace talks Russia didn’t hold ceasefire. Even then civilians were being bombarded. This is not a war by the book. People are running out of food. We don’t have much time to evacuate them,” Dr Tarun told Aditya.
He added that Indian students are concentrated in Kharkiv and Sumy in eastern Ukraine and are in the gravest danger. “I really don't like when Indian media is taking interviews of students who have come back from Ukraine. They were in western Ukraine. They did not see a bullet. They didn't see anything going down. Think about students who are in bunkers for god knows how many days,” he said, and beseeched the Indian government to concentrate on eastern Ukraine too, where an estimated 4,000 Indian students are still stranded.
(With inputs from Haritha John and Paul Oomen)