NEW DELHI: As the minutes gave way to hours, a group of about 150 students from Danylo Halytsky Lviv National Medical University made the hard choice: fend for themselves as help from Ukranian and Indian officials was nowhere in sight.
Given that staying back meant uncertainty, the group booked Uber cabs towards the Poland border in groups of four and walked thereon to their destination. This, according to the students, was the last hope of getting out of the war-torn territory.
“Initially, we were walking towards wrong route but redirected (on the proper road). We are walking as there is a long traffic and a large number of Ukranians are trying to cross the borders and stuck in traffic for the last 10-12 hours,” said Sonu Kumar, a student of Lviv National Medical University in western Ukraine.
Till the filing of this report, the students were walking and stated that they will reach the Poland border in an hour.
According to Sonu, the students who left were mostly from first-year and they have carried their belongings, mostly important books and clothing.
“The network is really bad. We have not been able to speak with our parents as well since morning but it is important to leave from Lviv,” Sonu texted on WhatsApp.
The distance between Lviv to Poland border is around 80 km and out of which the group covered some 15 km on foot, he said. Vikram, another student, said that another batch of 150-200 students will leave on Saturday morning.
‘‘While the Indian Embassy notified us that we can cross borders towards Hungary and Romania, we are far away from Lviv and are waiting for the embassy to confirm about the evacuation route for Poland,’’ he said.
“They have not confirmed if we can reach the Polish border but we are reaching there in the hope of saving ourselves. For Hungry and Romania, we will have to pay three times the fare of the cab. The distance is also three times as compared with Poland.”
The fourth year student said the Indian Embassy advised the students who wanted to cross the Romania and Hungary border to carry printouts of Indian flags and paste it prominently on vehicles and buses.
‘‘We were also asked to carry passport, cash in US dollars for any emergency expenses and other essentials.”
EMBASSY ADVISORY
The Indian Embassy advised the students who wanted to cross the Romania and Hungary border to carry printouts of Indian flags and paste it prominently on vehicles and buses.