BHOPAL: Get-up-and-go packs ready — with all their documents, bottled water and packaged food — the Indian students stranded in war-torn Ukraine are counting their breaths to the evacuation order.
“We are ready. We have pasted Indian flag stickers on our bags so that we can be easily identified in case we run into trouble. We want to be identified as Indians,” one of them told TOI on Friday morning, requesting not to be named as he didn’t want his parents to panic.
They have got feelers that they may be evacuated via Poland or Hungary. Travel light, is the advice. When the time comes to run, they may have to choose between their books and bottles of water, they said.
“We came here to study but we are now having to learn to fight fear and survive in a war zone,” a stranded student from Madhya Pradesh said, as daily life turned into a struggle.
Sleepless nights, nerves on edge, citywide blackouts, ready to run into a bomb shelter… This is what life is like for Indians stuck in war-torn Ukraine. Students as young as 19, who have encountered violence only on TV screens, are now caught up in the biggest war in Europe since World War-2.
“I don’t think any of us has even seen a real gun and now we are in the middle of missiles and bombs," said first-year medical student Narendra Kumar.
“Can you imagine what it’s like to hear an air-raid blaring at midnight and students running here and there in panic? We are living in fear and trauma,” said Kumar. “Last night, suddenly, the siren went off and we were told to run to the bomb shelters. We did, but we can’t stay in these shelters for long periods as they are not in proper condition,” he added.
Everyone in Ukraine’s cities, including foreign students, has been given maps that show bomb shelters and basements where they can hunker down. Till a couple of days before the Russian attack began, most people thought they would never have to use it. But things have gone rapidly and alarmingly downhill. Most students have already experienced the sit-outs in air raid shelters.
