Stranded in Ukraine's bunkers, thousands of Indian students desperate for rescue

Pratibha Swarnakar, mother of Pushpak Swarnakar, a fifth-year medical student of western Ukraine's Ternopil National Medical University, displays her phone with an image of her son, who she said was among nearly 2,000 Indians taking shelter in bunkers, at her house in the outskirts of Kolkata, India, February 25, 2022. REUTERS/Rupak De Chowdhuri

All through the night, as Russian forces drove deeper into Ukraine, a small group of Indian medical students in the Ukrainian city of Kharkiv cowered in a dark basement under their apartment building, hearing a barrage of explosions.

The bombardment was unabated in the morning.