The sound of windowpanes of their house shattering in a pre-dawn blast in the neighbourhood woke up Munna and his friends at Kharkiv when Russia started bombing Ukraine’s second-largest city last week. That was when they were desperately waiting for a signal from the Indian embassy to move to Lviv in the western part of the country.
"I may have survived the worst crisis in life," says Munna (Mohammed Munthazeer), a second year student at Kharkiv National Medical University.
Back home, students recall the chilling experiences of traversing along conflict zones to reach the border. Now, they fervently pray for the safety of the ones still stuck in many provinces of the war-torn nation.
Munna remembers with fondness and gratitude a congregation of nuns near the Slovakian border that provided food and shelter as it was the first proper meal in a week for most of them who had survived on chocolates and snacks. Having reached home on Monday, Munna is recuperating in Kochi before travelling to join his parents in Dubai.
“All of us who came back from Ukraine, especially those from the eastern cities, are still in a state of trauma. I can’t forget that the place I studied and lived for two years is now a warzone,” he says.
Mohammed Nihal from Thrissur, also a second year student from Kharkiv National Medical University, is still feeling the tremors from a missile that landed just 200 metres from them as he and his friends were trying to get out of Kharkiv. They waited at the railway station for 10 hours before they were allowed to board a train. “The local police were really offensive. Many of us were pushed away or beaten up,” says Nihal.
However, Nihal cannot forget the help provided by a Ukrainian family as they struggled to find transportation to the Slovakian border, wishing that all three of the family be safe.
Nihal reached home on Monday and is trying to get past the traumatic experience at his home at Chavakkad.
