Humanitarian crisis worsens as many rush to move west but avenues are limited
Smoke billows after a missile attack targeting the Ukrainian capital’s television centre in Kyiv. Pic/AFP
Vidhi Dama, who was stuck in Ukraine’s capital Kyiv, told mid-day that Ukrainians were not allowing Indian students to take the trains out of the city, where bombing and firing are on. Indian officials later helped them move west, as Russian troops began their attack on Kyiv on Tuesday.
The Indian government had issued an advisory, asking all Indian students to leave Kyiv after the Russian troops reached near the city on Tuesday morning. Dama, a resident of Thane who went to Ukraine to study medicine, said she and her friends experienced horrible behaviour at the railway station, and shared videos and photos with mid-day.
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Vidhi Dama, a resident of Thane who studies medicine in Ukraine
“Students stuck in Kyiv and Kharkiv are in danger, too, and the Indian Embassy is trying to shift us to safe places in the western part of the country via train and roads. Bombing and firing are underway in these to cities. Many students have been hiding in the bunkers and have run out of food,” Dama added.
After the curfew was lifted and special trains were started for Indian students to take them to safe places, she and her friends decided to leave Kyiv and left our bunker for the station, she said. “At the station, Ukrainians behaved rudely with us. They didn’t allow us to take the train. We were all crying and begging, but they don’t have any humanity,” Dama added.
Ritankshi Patel, a Vasai resident, has been holed up in a bunker with 40-50 Indian students, in Kyiv. She had tried to take a flight out of Kyiv on Thursday, but she couldn’t. “After I couldn’t get on a flight, I stayed with my friends in the bunker in Kyiv. My friends were sick due to suffocation in the bunker and there wasn’t enough food. Most of my friends started vomiting, and had headaches and fever. We were told to take a train out of Kyiv, so some of us walked about 4 km to reach Chernivtsi railway station.”
Ritankshi Patel, a Vasai resident who is currently in Kyiv; (right) Vidhi Dama, a resident of Thane who had gone to Ukraine to study medicine
“When we reached the station, not a single Ukrainian allowed us inside the train and they also behaved rudely with us. We wanted to go to the Hungary border. After missing five-six trains, we somehow managed to get in one,” Patel added. She said that some students are still in the bunker, and the “Indian government should help them escape” the war-hit country.
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