Haryana girl declines to leave Ukraine, stays back to help family in distress

Tucked inside a bunker alongside a Ukrainian woman and her three small kids in the war-torn country, a 17-year old girl from Haryana has declined to leave Ukraine showing unassailable grit and courage to help the Ukrainian family in distress times.

As flights coordinated by the Indian government bring back stranded Indian students in hordes from Ukraine, Neha who is pursuing a medical degree in Ukraine, declined the opportunity she got to leave the war ravaged nation saying “she may live or not, but she will not leave these children and their mother in such a situation.”

A Facebook post by her aunt gives an account of the courage of the teenage girl who has chosen to risk her life to comfort a Ukrainian family. Neha had been staying as a paying guest at the house of a construction engineer in Ukraine along with his wife and three children. As war broke out, her landlord left the house for the frontlines after he volunteered to join the Ukrainian Army against the Russian invasion.

Neha, who felt a strong emotional connect for the three kids and their mother, decided not to abandon the family in distress and fear as sirens wail, blackouts blind and bombs ravage the city.

Also Read: Emotions run high at Delhi airport as parents welcome children from Ukraine; others await rescue

“I may live or not, but I will not leave these children and their mother in such a situation,” Neha was quoted telling her mother, a teacher based in Charkhi Dadri district of Haryana.

“We keep on hearing blasts outside, but we are fine so far,” Neha told a family friend.

Savita Jakhar, a close friend of Neha’s mother wrote on Facebook, “She knows that she may lose her life, but she is determined not to return in the given circumstances. I don’t know what gives the girl so much strength to stand with the family.”

She said, “It’s going to be 4 am. I feel restless as I could not sleep throughout the night. A 17-year-old daughter of a close friend is stuck in Kyiv where she went to pursue her bachelor’s degree...The owner of the house where she has been staying joined the army a couple of days ago. As of now, the girl is staying in a bunker with the house-owner’s wife and three children.”

The post that has gone viral is drawing applause for the brave heart teenager girl’s empathy towards people of another nationality suffering the miseries of the war. Her mother has been insisting she returns, but Neha has decided to stay put in a warzone. Neha, whose father was in the Army and died a few years ago, shifted to Kyiv last year to pursue medical education.

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