With violence in Ukraine escalating and the Indian Embassy on Tuesday urging all its citizens to leave capital Kyiv “urgently, by trains or any other means available”, hundreds of Indian students, including Keralites, who sought refuge in underground metro stations and bunkers in Kharkiv and Kyiv have started fleeing for safety in the western border areas of Ukraine. Speaking to The Hindu over phone, Shahid Shajahan, a first-year MBBS student at Kharkiv National University, said “all hopes are lost now and we have to take the risk of reaching the border on our own, braving air raids and artillery shelling. For the last six days, we have been hiding in bunkers without food, water and other basic amenities. I don’t know how we will reach the border city of Lviv overcoming all these impediments.” Mr. Shajahan hails from Chavakkad in Thrissur. A few students have taken the risk of reaching the nearest railway station in Kharkiv in order to flee the battleground. The Hindu had been keeping in touch with them from the morning on Tuesday, but lost contact by night.
Nihal, another MBBS student from the same university who reached the railway station to board a train along with a few other students, said “we have no other means other than taking the risk of leaving the battleground as no one is responding to our pleas.” Akshaya Anilkumar, a second-year MBBS student from the same university and hailing from Changanassery in Kottayam, said “we had set out in the early morning to catch a train. But soon after we left the underground metro station where we had been staying for the last six days, air raid sirens indicating air strikes wailed. We then dropped the idea and rushed back to the metro station. We have to try one more time the next morning. A 15-minute cab ride is enough for us to reach the railway station. If we walk, it would take around two hours, but it’s very risky.” Six days in dusty bunkers have left the majority of the students devastated. A lot of them who precariously hid in the bunkers now have throat pain, allergies and other health issues, compounded by lack of proper sleep.
The students say the call to reach border areas at their own risk has left many of us, especially girls, shocked, while some have risked everything to escape. The Indian Embassy in Ukraine on Tuesday tweeted that “all Indian nationals, including students, are advised to leave Kyiv urgently today. Preferably by available trains or through any other means available.”
