NEW DELHI: Some of the Indian students stranded in Ukraine are a little too close to the war. Many of them are in Kharkiv and Odessa. Both places have witnessed airstrikes. Authorities have asked them to move to bunkers.
Inside the overcrowded bunkers - some real and some makeshift like tube stations and basements - they are waking up to explosions. Some have seen fighter jets roaring through the sky. Some even say that rockets landed in places nor far from where they are.
Aousaf Hussain, a 26-year-old MBBS student in Kharkiv in north-east Ukraine, said that the army is all over the city. Having heard explosions since the morning, he and his friends decided to stay spend the night at Naukova metro station, with local residents. He is from Kerala.
"I first went to a bunker made during Second World War era. But it dimly lit and overcrowded. There was a mother with her young baby in a pram. I don't know how they are managing. I then moved to the metro station," Hussain told The New Indian Express.
Aousaf said that he started making videos of the military conducting marches on the streets, but when they spotted him they yelled and asked him to delete it. He added that no one from the Indian embassy has come to their rescue so far. They are completely on their own. "Around 150-200 students are there in the metro station," he said.
Students in Odessa, in the southern part of the country, also reported shelling and bombing. Some even captured these scenes on camera. "About 5-10 kms from our place, massive shelling took place and the sky turned black," said Kuldeep Singh, a 24-year-old student of National Medical University. He is from Uttar Pradesh.
Vishal Yadav, a third-year student in Odessa from Varanasi, does not know what future has in store. "The situation is tense. An emergency has been declared. News channels are saying that the Russian army wants the Ukraine army to surrender. We are also hearing people are being killed. It's scary," he said.
West Bengal's Anindya Sekhar Bhadra, a third-year MBBS student in Vinnytsia, woke up to a loud explosion near her hostel. Vinnytsia is in west-central Ukraine. "There is a military base where the explosion took place. A cloud of fear has covered the sky of Vinnytsia. Locals are leaving for safer places," said Bhadra.
People in Kharkiv have been asked to take shelter. "Authorities asked us to stay in bunkers, which in our case is the basement of our hostel, Airstrikes by Russia have started. I came here 15 days ago to complete my admission process. The situation is tense but we are safe so far," said Pratik Jondhale of Nasik.
Zafar Ali, from Kashmir's Baramulla, was not very far from a place where a rocket landed. He is stuck in Odessa. "Panic gripped all of us after a rocket landed about a kilometre from our university. Fear is growing with each passing moment," Zafar said. He is among the 20 students from J&K in Odessa.
Inputs from Pranab Mondal (Kolkata), Sudhir Suryawanshi (Mumbai) and Fayaz Wani (Srinagar)
