ATHANI: The lives of young medical students from various parts of India stranded in the middle of a warzone in Kharkiv seems to be turning from bad to worse, by every passing day.
Three out of five medical students from Athani taluk have been able to escape Kharkiv, amidst continuous bombing by Russian forces, and have managed to cross the Ukrainian border, but the remaining two are still trapped in Kharkiv and its surrounding areas.
Rakshit Ravi Gani, who hails from Kottalgi village, Athani taluk, is in a helpless situation, wandering around Kharkiv and local railway stations, unable to cross the border. In a long phone conversation with his father in Athani on Thursday, Rakshit said that he has not been having proper food to eat or water to drink for the past three days in Kharkiv or at the railway station where he had been staying.
"I ate some biscuits and two slices of bread to survive a full day yesterday. Similar has been the condition of all Indian students here. As we had very little water with us, I drank merely 200 ml the entire day. I could not even relieve myself even once yesterday! With hardly anything to eat and drink, I have walked more than 13 hours (along with hundreds of Indian students) since yesterday. I am sleepless and my entire body is aching," Rakshit told his father.
After walking a long distance and reaching a railway station near Kharkiv on Thursday, he said hundreds of Indian students were denied entry into trains, even on those where their seats were reserved.