Spending days in overcrowded bunkers with little or no food, walking kilometers in sub-zero temperatures as they struggled to catch trains from Kharkiv, waiting for hours – for Indian students ravaged by the war Delhi had returned from the city on Friday in Kharkiv in eastern Ukraine, traveling across the country to western Ukraine, and crossing borders into Poland and Hungary, a journey he found impossible.
Priyanka Goel, a fourth year student at Kharkiv National Medical University, said she left the city along with a few others on March 1, a day before the Indian embassy advised all Indian nationals in Kharkiv to leave immediately. “We went on our own, and knew we had to take care of ourselves. After a train journey of 24 hours, we reached Lviv,” she said. Lviv is in the western part of the country.
“The temperature was -5 degrees Celsius, and we had to wait for the bus in Lviv for about 5-6 hours. It was crowded and buses were difficult to find,” said Priyanka, who eventually made it to the border with Hungary.
“The embassy issued an advisory. I understand it must have been difficult for them as well, but we expected to travel east to west… it was almost impossible to go,” said Priyanka, who is from Kaithal, Haryana, and arrived on an evacuation flight from Budapest.
Shubh Madan, a third year student of Kharkiv, who hails from Moga, Punjab, arrived from Rzejów, Poland on Friday morning. Shubh said that she had stayed at the metro station for two days before the city was attacked. “When the city was attacked, the metro station was closed and we had to go to a bunker. The bunkers are overcrowded and suffocating. We left on Tuesday morning, walking about 7 km to reach the railway station, as cabs were either difficult to find or expensive. When we were at the railway station we heard the sound of bombing outside. We were afraid that we would die at the station,” she said.
She said that with a group of 40 -50 students she took a train from Kharkiv to Lviv. “We somehow arranged a bus from Lviv to the border of Poland on our own. We reached the border at 1 pm, but our turn to cross came only around 7 pm. They were only allowing 30 to 40 people to pass at a time, and they preferred those with Ukrainian passports. When it was our turn, we waited for another four hours for the immigration process,” she said.
Both Priyanka and Shubh said their problems eased after crossing the border. “We were taken to a hotel about 125 km from the border. Mattresses and food were provided, and registration was done for evacuation flights,” said Shubh.
Anirudh, a second year student at Kharkiv National Medical University, also came from Poland. “We spent a few days in the bunker, and went without food for two days. Our friends are still in Kharkiv… The train journey from Kharkiv to Lviv, which usually took 11 hours, took 24 hours. All the trains were running slow, their lights were off. There was no help in the battle field. However, once we crossed the Poland border, we were greeted very well,” said Anirudh, who is from Saharanpur.
For Govind, a fifth-year student in Odessa, in the southern part of the country, crossing the border into Hungary was a grueling process that took several days. “I took a train from Odessa on February 26 and reached the border, but could not cross. I spent three to four days at the border, on the road with my belongings,” he said. He said that although curfew was imposed in Odessa, the situation was not as bad as it is in Kharkiv.
According to a PTI report, the Ministry of Civil Aviation said in a statement that 14 civilian and three IAF flights brought back 3,772 Indians on Friday. “Another civilian flight is expected on the day (Friday),” the statement said.