VISAKHAPATNAM: Indian students have faced an unprecedented situation while they were holed up in bunkers since the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Chintala Niharika, a third-year MBBS student at Zaporizhzhia State Medical University, arrived in Delhi from Ukraine on Saturday. Speaking to TNIE, Srinivas, Niharika’s father, said his daughter had come out of the critical situation at a time when Russian troops attacked a nuclear power plant, the largest in Europe, close to Zaporizhzhia.
He advised his daughter against taking risks like some of her seniors, who had headed to the borders by foot. He said it was not safe to walk amid the bombings. Niharika reached Hungary’s border three days ago. Srinivas said Niharika told him that they were forced to rush to bunkers whenever the war siren went off. Sometimes they could not go to the mess for food due to continuous alerts. After reaching Hungary, they were given accommodation and food for two days till they boarded a flight to Delhi. He said he felt relieved after Niharika landed in Delhi.
Meanwhile, Nandini of Kotauratla in Visakhapatnam district, who reached from Ukraine on Friday, said she had gone to Ukraine in 2019. She said her university in Vinnytsia was 250 km away from Kyiv. “We started for Hungary and spent anxious moments en route. Whenever we heard sirens, we will park our vehicles on the roadside and waited for 10 to 15 minutes before resuming the journey. It was a horrendous experience,’’ Nandini said.