No help from Indian embassy in Ukraine; managed to get out of war zone on own, say Indian students on arrival

It is a sea of anxious faces, worried families and some measure of relief that is evident at the gates of the Indira Gandhi International Airport Terminal 3. Families are waiting to see their children walk through the gates safely after their ordeal in Ukraine, which has been invaded by Russia.

Most of the students who arrived on Wednesday were studying in various medical colleges close to the western Ukrainian border, which is why they could cross the borders of Moldova into Romania from where they boarded a flight to India.

Almost all of the 200 students who arrived around 12.30 pm began their journey on February 26 from their colleges, but were able to cross the border only on February 28.

Nineteen-year-old Rishit, who has just completed two semesters at Ivano-Frankivsk National Medical University, said they had no help from the Indian Embassy in Ukraine. “All they were doing is issuing advisories asking us to get to the borders. How were we supposed to do that? We could hear blasts every few hours and we were scared for our lives,” he said.

Several students from his college took the help of a local resident to arrange for buses to reach the Romanian border. “Our seniors and we were able to arrange around eight buses to shuttle close to 1,000 students to the border. All of us had to pay for the buses which took us to the Romania border. From there we had to organise another bus to reach the airport. The Indian Embassy was not even there at the border. Several of us were beaten and there were moments we thought we would not make it. I am just happy to have reached home,” added Rikshit, who will go back to his hometown in Himachal Pradesh.

Many of the universities waited till last week to announce the beginning of online classes and the Indian Embassy in Ukraine too did not release a strict advisory until February 20 asking all Indian students to leave Ukraine by any available commercial or charter flights. The government had not considered evacuation then.

On February 22, the Embassy released an advisory addressed to the students asking them to leave rather than waiting for an official confirmation from universities.

By February 24, Ukraine closed its airspace because by then Russian forces had launched an attack. An Air India flight had to turn back due to this.

Rikshit’s college has stated that they would conduct classes for the next semester online and they are likely to reopen in September 2022, when he is hoping to go back.

However, his parents did not seem inclined to send him back to the troubled country. His mother Sandesh Sirohi said they are looking at other options for his higher education. “We are not sure if we will let him go back. The worry we faced the last few days is unimaginable,” she said.

Fourth-year MBBS student of Odessa National Medical College, Mohammad Adnan, said none of the Embassy officials in Ukraine were able to help. No one was responding to frantic SOS messages being sent by students to them. They too had to organise buses to reach Moldova border, where they had to arrange another bus to Romania and then from the Romania border to the airport. The students had to pool in money for the transport to the borders.

“We have reached alive only because of the kindness of strangers in these two countries. Several people gave us food, water and allowed us to use toilets. Many gave us space to sleep. Families of our fellow students who were in these countries, especially those of Indian origin, helped us the most,” mentioned Adnan. His whole family had arrived from Bijnor to take him back home.

They began their journey from Odessa on February 25 and reached Moldova, which is 80 kms away, on the same day. Then, they reached Romania on February 27. They have been near Romanian airport since then.

For Firdaus and Zohra, the ordeal began on February 23, 2022. “When we woke up on February 23, there was only smoke all around us. A bomb blast had occurred less than 2 kms away from our medical college. We didn’t know what to do. Our university authorities initially said they would organise buses for us on February 25, but it was cancelled. We had to arrange for private buses to take us to Romania border. Each of us had to play close to Rs 1,800 to board the bus,” said Zohra. Both of them did not want to specify the name of their university.

Most of the university students have left their luggage and several documents in the university as they had to escape the shelling. Even though they had arranged for a bus till the Romanian border, the bus stopped around 15 km away.

“We had to walk. It took us more than 4 hours. They were not able to speak to their family for several days while crossing the borders as they had no internet connection. We did not think about death as we knew we had to brave it and get out of the war zone. We had to wait at the border for close to 12 hours to cross,” said Firdaus Alam. Both of their respective families had arrived from Lucknow and Kanpur to take them back home.

There are more than 18,000 Indian students studying in Ukraine. According to information shared by External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar, fifteen ‘Operation Ganga’ flights have departed from Romania and Poland and close to 2,300 students have been able to return so far.