LUCKNOW: After being stuck for four days, several Indian students living in bunkers in Kyiv, Ukraine, rushed to board trains to somehow reach the border for evacuation, as soon as curfew was lifted in the capital city on Monday.
MBBS students and friends from Lucknow, Anshika Pandey from Jankipuram and Shreya Singh from Aliganj had been struggling to leave war-torn Kyiv. However, curfew and chaos had stopped their movement.
On Monday morning, Shreya finally boarded the train with great difficulty after making her way through a crowd. Anshika had to wait till evening at the railway station to begin her journey from eastern Ukraine to the western side towards the Romanian border from where evacuation is being done.
Talking to TOI from Kyiv, Anshika said, “I am trying to leave for the western border. The situation is sensitive here, the embassy had asked us to split into groups of five and reach the railway station to board the train.”
“The railway station is heavily crowded with Ukrainians and Indians trying to move towards the border. My daughter somehow reached the railway station but due to the huge crowd she couldn’t board the train. She stayed there for eight hours before she could get a train,” said her worried father Dr Mrityunjay Pandey.
Shreya, while on the train, told TOI, “The curfew was lifted at 8am. I had left early for the station.” She said her friends are still stuck at Kyiv railway station, some there for more than 12 hours to board the train.
