SHUBHANGI SHIFA
Ranchi, Mar 2: “I was in my college at Vinnytsia National Pirogov Medical University when we first heard that Russia had attacked Ukraine,” said Ankit Singh, a first-year student while detailing his dreadful journey back home.
Singh is one of the few other students who have been able to make it back home amidst the ongoing Ukrainian-Russian conflict. While talking to Lagatar24.com, he elaborated the time he spent on his journey back to India.
“Sirens had already made us aware of the war-like situation on February 23. These sirens would inform us that there was an oncoming attack and that we had to hide in the bunkers. Every building in the country had bunkers there. Once a siren was sounded, we would go hide in the bunkers for 2-3 hours at a stretch,” Singh added, who very recently got back to his hometown Bokaro.
He continued saying, “None of the officials from our university came to our rescue when we were stuck. We then heard on February 24, that an agent named Mansoor Ansari was helping students from two other colleges escape, so we booked our bus tickets with him. That was how we joined their group and fled.”
“It took us four days to cross the Ukrainian-Romanian border. The border officials had no arrangements for the number of people that were trying to flee. The temperatures would dip to -2 to -3 degrees at night. There were no tents or food arrangements, so we ate what little we had.”
Singh said that his journey was very difficult and that he and his friends had to face a lot of difficulties while crossing the Ukrainian-Romanian border. Students were being harassed, attacked and beaten at the border, he said, stating, “Even girls were slapped right in front of me by the Ukrainian army if they asked too many questions, soldiers even opened fire to scare us straight.”
Explaining the wait at the border, Singh said, “We reached the border on February 24 at 11 pm and stood in waiting lines till 9 am the next morning. At this moment, we were told that the border had been closed and would be reopened at 4 pm that evening (February 25). Students formed lines once again at 2 pm and waited till 9 pm, but only a limited number of people were allowed to pass the border by then.”
“After we crossed the border into Romania, we had an option of either staying at a shelter or leaving for the airport. I chose to leave for the airport as I was done with Ukraine. I wanted to come back home,” Singh added.
The student also expressed anguish for the behavior of the officials at the Indian Embassy in Ukraine claiming, “They would cut our calls if they knew we were calling from the border. I personally called them at least 10 times, where all of my calls were disconnected. It was disappointing, it felt as if we had no one supporting us.”
Notably, Russia started military operations against Ukraine on Thursday morning after months of tension over the former Soviet republic’s proximity to NATO. There are around 16,000 Indian students still stranded in Ukraine. Many have made desperate appeals for help, sharing photos and videos on social media from underground bunkers, and bomb shelters, where they have been sheltering from Russian bombs and missiles.
