Stranded students in Ukraine overcome adversities and join families finally

Over 22 students who were stranded in different cities of war-hit Ukraine safely returned homes on Monday.

They flew by flights from Poland, Hungary and Romania and landed in New Delhi and Mumbai. Some of them flew to Hubballi, Mangaluru and Bengaluru and then reached their respective houses.

Anaina Anna, Claton Osmond D’Souza, Ahamed Saad Arshad and Shalvin Preeti Aranha from Dakshina Kannada district; Tayab Kausar, Shakib, Shakeen and Solomon from Ballari; Tanushree, Tejaswi Nagaraj, Nayan Reddy from Kolar district; Prajwal Kumar from Lingasgur in Raichur district;Syed Irshad, Sahana Patil, Naveen Patil from Bagalkot district; Pradwin, Arun Kumar from Chikkamagaluru district; Vinayak Nyamagouda, Wilson David from Belagavi district; Devamane Milan from Dharwad district and Nazilla Ghazipur from Uttara Kannada district are among the returnees.

Each one of them recounted a frightening ordeal in which they hid in bunkers and basements before reaching safety. Some of them spent over a week inside bunkers. They were barred from using mobile phones during the night. There would be darkness all over the bunker as power supply would be disrupted during the night.

A few of them said that they spent nights in underground bomb shelters and metro stations. They faced hardships due to power outages and water supply disruption. Some of them undertook dangerous trips to leave the war-hit regions.

‘Frightening journey’

Terming their journey as frightening, they said that they had to wait for hours in the freezing cold at the border areas. Most of them walked up to 15 kilometres to reach the borders too. They said that they were not hopeful of returning to India due to constant shelling. They witnessed the bombardment and deaths very closely.

Tayab Kausar, Shakib, Shakeen and Solomon said that the Russian soldiers threatened them at gunpoint. The students produced their passports to establish that they were students from India. The soldiers let the students go only after confirming their
nationality.

“I walked for about 15 kilometres and had to spend three days without food. Some Ukrainian nationals insulted me as they believed that India did not stand by their country against Russian attack,” Tejaswi Nagaraj from Bagepalli in Kolar district recalled.

Arun Kumar said that he had to shell out over Rs 6,000 to reach the borders from Kharkiv constantly hearing the sound of deafening thuds.

Prajwal Kumar said, "Many students hesitated to leave Ukraine during the initial days considering their eligibility tests. Moreover, the college authorities said that they would not suspend the classes.”

M Vishnu said that some of the Ukrainian residents were kind to him as they offered tea, biscuits and water.

“Many students had booked flight tickets on February 24. However, they could not board the flights,” he said.

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