Parents of Indian students in Ukraine await their return

Many Karnataka students in Ukraine and their parents in the state are anxious as uncertainty has continued over the students’ evacuation especially from the regions under the radar by the Russian troops.

All students are safe and have continued to take shelter in bunkers. However, some of the parents have not been able to contact their wards due to hurdles in technological issues. Most of the students clarified that they were safe and expressed helplessness in coming out of the bunkers.

Narrating her ordeal, Anaina Anna from Mangaluru, said,” We continuously hear sounds of shelling. We are stranded at the metro station. There is nothing to protect ourselves from biting cold. There is a food and water shortage.”

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She is a medical student at V N Karazin Kharkiv National University.

Arun Kumar Umachagi, a student from Mundaragi in the Gadag district said, “Many Indian students are taking shelter in bunkers in and around Kharkiv. They are unable to come out and are not sure of what will happen next minute.”

‘Cut off from world’

“We have been cut off from the outside world for the last three days. Our locality is witnessing heavy shelling. We are likely to face water and food shortages from Sunday. Over 200 Indians, including 50 from Karnataka, are taking shelter in a bunker. Nobody is helping us and none is able to contact us,” Kiran Savadi from Rabakavi Banahatti said.

Prajwal Kumar Thimmapur, a student from Madabavi in Rabakavi Banahatti taluk in Bagalkot district told his parents that the officials in Kharkiv had informed the Indians not to share their location details on any type of online platform as it might help enemies to carry out attacks.

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“The authorities expressed helplessness in sending us to India for one more week,” he said.

Kavya, a Chamarajanagar district student, pursuing medicine at Kyiv said that it was impossible for students to come out and the situation worsened as prices of essentials skyrocketed.

The latest condition of a student from the Mysuru district is not known due to technological issues. The parents of H K Prajwal from Heggandur village in Hunsur taluk said that they were unable to contact their son since February 25. He is pursuing medicine at Zaporizhzhia State Medical University, Zaporizhzhia.

A batch of students was brought to the border area in Rumania from Ukraine. Local authorities verified the documents of the students which took about five hours.

“There is a high volume of traffic on roads across the border in Ukraine as a large number of people are leaving the country. Petrol bunks and hotels on both sides of the roads are jam-packed,” Mahaganapathi Bilimaggad, a student of Bukovinian State Medical University in Chernivtsi, said. He is on his way to India along with over a hundred other Indian students.

As many as 10 students from Hassan district, seven from Udupi district and nine from Chikkamagaluru district are among the stranded.

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