BHUBANESWAR: Following an advisory in the evening by the Indian Embassy in Kyiv to leave Kharkiv immediately in wake of the deteriorating situation, many of the students have started walking to Pesochin ( a distance of 11km) with their passports.
Prasanjeet Pattanaik, a student, said they were asked to shift to Babye, Pesochin or Bezlyudovka immediately in the evening and leave Kharkiv before 6 pm (Ukraine time). “Since Pesochin is the closest to Kharkiv, we formed teams of all Indian students and decided to start walking at around 3 pm. We are just carrying one bag and our passport,” said Prasanjeet, adding that the Russian government allowed a window for a few hours for the Indian students to escape the city before it steps up attacks.
Even as some of the Odisha students managed to catch trains to escape Kharkiv on Wednesday, many of them, particularly boys, were not allowed to board by locals. Prasanjeet said he and his friends had been trying to board the train since morning but were unable to do so.
“They just would not let Indian students in. We do not think anyone understands our situation now. We have been experiencing bullet fires and blasts from so close and near Vozkal station besides the airstrikes. The Indian Embassy asked us to shift out of Kharkiv within three hours, how is that even possible without any help?,” said a helpless Prasanjeet.
The Kharkiv National Medical University where a majority of the Odisha students studied was also destroyed by Russian missiles on the day. Most of the students who managed to board trains walked through metro tunnels to reach Vokzal and Studentska stations in Kharkiv.“We do not know if we can reach the border but we are at least out of Kharkiv now. Everyone is making a last-ditch effort to escape from this city.
And today, a majority of us who got onto the trains were girls. The boys could not get into the first train due to resistance by locals and had to wait for the next arrival,” said Liza Kap who along with two other girls Lozarin Sahoo and Sonali Mishra managed to board one early in the morning. The girls had started walking from Oleksivska Green Metro on Thursday midnight to the Studentska railway station.
As per the State Resident Commissioner’s office in Delhi, at least 425 students from Odisha were in Ukraine when the war started. On Wednesday noon, 13 have returned to India. With this, 28 students of the State have reached the country from Ukraine since Friday last.