ALAPPUZHA: It is freezing cold outside, but more than 100 Malayali students from various universities in and around Kharkiv city in Ukraine cannot afford to stay indoors. The sound of shelling and firing is heard every now and then, and the students have taken refuge inside a subway train. A supermarket opened on Saturday morning and they collected some food and water and returned to the train. “It’s minus 4 degree Celsius here. We fear the extreme cold will make us sick, but there is no way to escape from this trap,” said Lakshmi Priya, fourth-year MBBS student of VN Karazin Kharkiv National University.
“There is hardly any direction for us from the embassy or any officials. The agent who brought us here is asking us to stay where we are. The situation is bad and we can’t move around. Neighbouring countries Romania and Hungary are 1,500-2,000km away and we find it tough to reach there,” said Lakshmi Priya.
Vighna Nair, a native of Cherthala, said shortage of drinking water is an issue. “Thankfully, there are facilities to recharge our mobile phones at the railway station,” she said. Jithina of Kayamkulam, who has been living in a bunker at the Kyiv National Medical University, said she and others went to the hostel room at 8am when the sound of explosion went down a bit.
“We went and collected the food kept in the hostel room and took a bath. The hostel authorities were constantly asking us to move into the bunker two floors below if any alarm sound was heard. Alarm started ringing after an hour and we ran into the bunker. Soon we started hearing the sound of bombing,” she said.
“By noon, shelling and bombing increased and they continued till evening. The embassy or other authorities did not respond to our queries or answered our phone calls,” said Jithina.Students, who study close to the border areas, are also facing a serious crisis.
“They started moving towards the Hungarian border after the embassy asked them to do so. Many students, including from north India, started to walk to the border. It was 50-100km away, but the border did not open for them and they had to stay out in the open for the entire night in extreme cold conditions. Many students suffered cramps,” said Gokul G K, a native of Kalavoor, Alappuzha, who studies at Chernivtsi National University.