An airline boarding pass had never before been so crucial for L. Priyanka. Having been evacuated from war-hit Ukraine, the 21-year-old medico safely made it to her home in Hyderabad on Sunday morning. But the ordeal before her flight from Otopeni, Romania, is one that she will never forget. Her boarding pass, she says, is a reminder of the harrowing time she lived through.
A sixth-year MBBS student at the Bukovinian State Medical University in Chernivtsi, which is located in the western part of Ukraine, Priyanka suddenly found herself in a war zone as Russia launched full-scale military operations in that country on February 24.
Though war had not touched her region, she and other students could not help but imagine the dreadful possibility. The students were running low on food, water and cash. “Our cards did not work. The prices of groceries doubled. People started hoarding rations. We used up all the cash we had and exchanged our dollars,” recalls Priyanka.
