BHUBANESWAR: Students from Odisha, who are stranded in the active war zone of Sumy heaved a sigh of relief when Russia announced a ceasefire in the town and other areas of Ukraine to create safe corridors for evacuation operations on Monday. However, their hopes for escaping to safety did not last long.
The Indian Embassy sent four buses to Sumy in the morning but none of them could carry students beyond the town border due to violation of the ceasefire.
Tapan Kumar Bugudei, a student of Sumy State Medical University from Balasore, told The New Indian Express that all of them had to wait for several hours in -3 degree temperature early on Monday morning as they were told buses would arrive to take them to Poltava, around 175 km from Sumy.
“We have over 700 students here and in the first phase, only four buses came. Girls were asked to board the buses first and three buses were filled up with them. When we were about to board the fourth bus, we were told that gunfire and bombardments have started again,” Tapan said.
All the students were then asked to return to their hostels and wait for the next announcement. Till the filing of this report, there was no development on the front. On the 12th day of the war, the condition of the students has deteriorated further. “Today, there is no water at all. We had sought help from the local pharmacies and Red Cross to send us some essential medicines for the ailing students and sanitary pads for girls. But even the Red Cross is yet to come forward with help,” said Smruti Kumar Nayak of Keonjhar, a sixth-year student of the university.
Suffering from severe breathing issues, he is awaiting medical help in hostel 3 of the institute. “I have sent SOS messages to MEA for the medicines since Sunday but even the officials there seem helpless about facilitating it through their student coordinators here,” he added. Arranging food was also difficult with most of the shops closed on the day, said another Odia student Gouri Shankar Parida.
While State Resident Commissioner Ravi Kant did not respond to a query on the Odisha government’s plans to intervene for evacuation of its students in Sumy, officials at the helplines issued by the government informed that there is no official word yet. “It is the Indian Embassy which is coordinating to evacuate them from the war zone,” said an official. Meanwhile, 343 Odisha students have returned to the country since the war broke out including 80 who arrived in India on Monday, as per the Resident Commissioner’s office.