Last Udupi student stranded in Ukraine takes bus to Hungary border
UDUPI: Glenwill Fernandes, an MBBS student of Kharkiv Town National Medical University, who had moved to Pisochyn, a satellite town near Kharkiv, based on the advisory of the Indian Embassy successfully boarded a bus to the Hungary border on Saturday around 6.30 pm (IST). The bus will take the students to Poltava and then to the Hungary border. The journey from Pisochyn to the Hungary border could take 16-18 hours.
The 19-year-old Glenwill is the last stranded student from Udupi district to be moving out of war-torn eastern Ukraine as all others have moved out safely. The Indian Embassy in Kyiv had arranged buses to evacuate Indian students from Pisochyn. Glenwill is expected to take a flight to India from Budapest on Sunday.
Meanwhile Rohan Bagli, a student from Brahmavara who was stranded in Kharkiv, arrived in Delhi and then to his hometown on Saturday. Rohan is the son of Dhananjay, a scientist at Krishi Vijnan Kendra Brahmavara. Rohan told reporters that people in his university told them not to worry much initially as the threat of war from Russia existed for the past eight years.
"But the first day's shelling made us really panic. We had no routes to escape as Indian Embassy advisories were limited to mentioning about moving to bunkers soon after air raid sirens ring out. Those in western Ukraine could flee the war-torn country, but we in the eastern part suffered a lot. After four to five days, shelling intensified in Kharkiv. Then we decided to move to Lviv as the Indian Embassy started sending timely advisories," he said.
"Haveri’s Naveen who died from shelling in Kharkiv was my roommate and a junior. I was leaving from Kharkiv when I came to know about the tragic incident," he added.
"The Indian Embassy assisted us in every way possible after the war began, but if the Ukraine Embassy in India had informed about the deteriorating relations between Ukraine and Russia to the Indian government early, the evacuation process would have been hassle free," he said. Regarding medical education in Ukraine, Rohan said the quality of MBBS in Ukraine is not as good as in India, but it was affordable, so many like him preferred to go there.