PALAKKAD: As shelling intensified across the Ukrainian capital Kyiv, sisters M G Aiswarya and M G Surya from Palakkad and their classmates knew the time has come to leave the relative safety of their medical university.
Then a missile hit a building opposite their university forcing them to take a long, stressful and exhausting journey to the Slovakian border, over a 700-km journey to safety. “It was a real nightmare. As the Russian offensive reached Kyiv, there were shelling and missile attacks daily. We were staying on the 15th floor of the university -- Bogomolets National Medical University -- hostel. But when the attack started, we moved to the bunker. We had saved some food and water that sustained us for a few days. But the stocks began to deplete fast,” Aiswarya told TNIE.
“One day, we heard a loud sound at around 11am. A missile had hit a building opposite our university hostel. There was smoke all around. Ten floors of the building were damaged. However, as authorities had evacuated all people, there was no casualty, except for some minor injuries,” she said. They planned to take the train to the Slovakia border from Kyiv. “As we walked to the railway station, curfew was in place, and there were shoot-at-sight orders. We could see bodies lying around. As there was no claimant, they were covered with sheets. It was a gory sight, something we only read in stories,” said Surya.
But more trouble was waiting for them at the railway station. “We were not allowed to board the trains as Ukrainians were given preference over foreigners. Those who managed to get inside trains were pushed out. However, after missing three or four trains, we finally got into one,” said Aishwarya. A 15-hour journey later, they reached Rhakiv.
Then they walked to the Slovakia border. “There we put up in a hotel for three days, where our passports and tickets were checked. We later boarded a flight to New Delhi and from there to Kochi,” Aishwarya said. M S Gopalakrishnan and Radhamani are relieved that their children are back home at their home in Mattumantha.