DAVANAGERE: Finally, the wait was over for Suneha Thippeswamy, and her friends Swarna and Rachana, who on Thursday boarded a bus to reach the Hungary border, and onward to India. Suneha, who had first-hand experience of shelling in front of Kyiv Airport last Thursday, was about to board a flight, when air services were withdrawn from Kyiv and other cities of Ukraine. It forced the Chitradurga girl studying at Zaporizhzhia State Medical University, Zaporizhzhia, to drive to Kyiv where she had to stay in a friend’s house for two days due to intense shelling.
However, Suneha took the bold decision to take the road to Uzhhorod, near the Hungary border, driving for 28 hours. There, she stayed for four days in a hotel till she got a call from the Indian Embassy to board a bus to the Hungary border. Around 9 pm Thursday (IST), she boarded the bus to Budapest to be evacuated under Operation Ganga.
Sharing details of her journey, she said, “It is an experience of a lifetime and made me strong, and also taught a lesson of how to be prepared during unwarranted emergencies like war.” Throughout their journey, the girls had little food and water, and managed to catch some sleep at a fuel station. Neither did they have any currency, as ATMs had run dry.
Once they reached Uzhhorod, they managed to withdraw money. “It was here that our morale rose, and we felt we had got a fresh lease of life,” she said. Suneha is happy that the Indian government has started evacuating them.