THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The outbreak of war in Ukraine and shutting the airspace have come as a big blow to the stranded Indian students belonging to various medical universities.
Congress state president K Sudhakaran and senior leader Oommen Chandy have been urging the external affairs ministry to expedite the evacuation and introduce more chartered flights over the last one week in vain.
With the airspace being closed down now, the stranded students and their parents in Kerala are in anguish. But they are aware that getting panicky is not going to help them and are waiting to hear from the Indian Embassy in Kyiv.
Justin P Jose, a fifth-year medical student at Odessa National Medical University, was getting ready to log onto his online classes when TNIE caught up with him. His professor later did not hold the online class and urged everyone to stay calm. A native of Thrikkodithanam in Changanassery, he recalled that only after he heard the sound of explosions at the military airport in Odessa that he realised that the war was on. “It was only two weeks since the university started online classes due to the spurt in Covid cases.
We have been asked to wait patiently by the higher authorities and not to create panic. I share an apartment with another Malayali classmate, Joseph George from Thodupuzha. Fortunately, the drinking water and power supplies have not been disrupted,” he said. There are over 400 Malayali medical students stranded at university alone.
Dr Vishnu Harikumar who recently returned to Thiruvananthapuram after completing his medical degree from Kharkiv National Medical University (KNMU) in Ukraine is in the safe environs of his house.
‘Keralites in Ukraine’
The state Congress leadership has formed a Google Forms titled ‘Keralites in Ukraine’. Sudhakaran is directly in touch with the Indian Embassy and had even arranged a chartered flight, Azure Aircraft, to carry 320 passengers on March 6.
“We have taken steps to hand over the Google Forms to the embassy. Three girl students, originally from Thiruvananthapuram, had gone to the embassy complaining of not having accommodation. We have ensured their safe accommodation in a school near the embassy there,” said Sudhakaran to TNIE.