BHUBANESWAR: Three students from Odisha, studying in war-torn Ukraine, returned to the country on Monday and are on their way back home from New Delhi. As per the office of State Resident Commissioner in New Delhi, a total of nine students from Odisha have returned from Ukraine in the last three days including the three who arrived on the day. While one student each is from Keonjhar, Bargarh, Nuapada, Rourkela, Rayagada, two each belong to Sambalpur and Balangir.
The three who returned on the day are Sandeep Meher of Balangir, Tapas Ranjan Meher of Nuapada and Sai Priya of Rayagada. They are students of the National Medical University at Ivano-Frankivsk located in western Ukraine.
“We managed to cross over to Romania on Saturday(February 26) after standing at the border for five hours. The place was crowded but the situation then was not as bad as it is now. Ivano-Frankivsk was a safe zone then. In Romania, the Indian Embassy had made hotel accommodation for us where we stayed for four hours. The embassy officials then made a list of 220 Indians including us and took us to Bucharest in a bus. From there, they helped us board the Air India flight to New Delhi,” said Tapas, who is a final year medical student.
Considering themselves lucky to have stepped out of Ukraine, Sandeep and Priya said they are praying for the safety of their friends from Odisha who are still stranded in the eastern zones of the country. “Most of them are in bunkers and metros for the last three days without adequate food and water,” said Sandeep.
Meanwhile, the situation has turned worse for the Odisha students in Kharkiv and Kyiv, the active war zones in eastern Ukraine now. When curfew was relaxed in Kyiv on the day, a group of students from the state managed to board a train to Uzhhorod in western Ukraine.
Nrusingha Sahoo of Bhubaneswar who is one among them said he boarded the train early in the morning. “It is crammed with people with little breathing space and there is no place to sit. But we are ready to stand for the entire journey to Uzhhorod which is almost 12 hours of travel time. We are at least safe now,” he said. From Uzhhorod, he plans to travel to Hungary or Romania depending on the circumstances.
At Kharkiv which is still witnessing heavy bombing and gunfires, the students are shuffling between their apartments and bunkers in wake of frequent curfews and air strike warnings/sirens. “We are spending almost 17 to 18 hours a day in the metro that is close to our apartment. This metro is overcrowded with people and domestic animals and the limited number of toilets are clogged and dirty. During curfew, the Ukrainian forces seal all the metros in the city. They are also supplying us food and water whenever they can. But there has been no help from the Indian Embassy yet,” said Liza Kap of Bhubaneswar who stays at Heroiv Prasti there.