BHUBANESWAR: The humanitarian corridor that was opened in war-ravaged Ukrainian town of Sumy on Tuesday morning for evacuation of civilians brought an end to the suffering that five Odia students and their friends from different parts of the country had been enduring for the last 13 days.
Speaking to The New Indian Express, the Odia students who were dejected after Monday’s failed operation, said the evacuation began early in the morning. The Indian Embassy sent 12 large buses and all the 700-odd students were altogether evacuated from Sumy. The students, who were ready with their bags since Monday morning, were taken to city of Poltava from where they will be shifted to western borders by trains.
They reached Poltava which is 175 km (3 hr drive) from Sumy, late in the evening. “Due to security reasons, we were not told about the route to Poltava but all of us are relieved that we are finally out of the active war zone,” said Tapan Bugudei, a student of Sumy State Medical University from Balasore.
He added that Red Cross and Indian Embassy vehicles accompanied each of the buses. “The arrangements by embassy officials are good and none of the buses were overcrowded. There has been no violence so far in the Sumy-Poltava route that has been taken,” said Smruti Nayak, a sixth-year student of the university.
Like other Indian students of the university, Smruti, Tapan, Biswajit Das, Gourishankar Parida and Suman Mahanta of Odisha were living under squalid conditions without food, water and electricity in basements of their hostels ever since the Russia-Ukraine war broke out. Meanwhile, officials in the State Resident Commissioner’s office at New Delhi informed that 45 more Odisha students returned to the country on the day.