Students from Kharkiv march in group to escape

Family members say stranded students are walking to rail station with Tricolour in hand; Karnataka chief minister says will do all to bring Naveen’s body home

Students and workers from India, along with a large number of people from other countries, were marching on Wednesday in Kharkiv in war-ravaged Ukraine towards the nearest railway station risking their lives holding the Indian national flag, the father of one student said. “About 1,000 people, including 700 Indians, are marching towards the railway station holding the Indian flag. They are going to the railway station, which is seven kilometres from their bunker, by foot as no vehicles are available,” Venkatesh Vaishyar told PTI.

Venkatesh’s son Amit, 23, is a fifth-year medical student in Kharkiv Medical College. He is among three students from Chalageri in Ranebennur taluk of Haveri district studying MBBS in Kharkiv Medical College. Amit’s cousin Suman, 24, son of Sridhar Murthy Vaishyar, is also a student there and both of them are trying to return from the strife-torn country.

Shekarappa Gyanagouda, father of Naveen who died in Ukraine, breaks down after seeing the photograph of his son’s body, which is in a morgue in Kharkiv. Pic/ANI

On Tuesday, their junior Naveen Shekarappa Gyanagouda was killed in a shelling when he moved out of the bunker to fetch some food, water and exchange currency. “Students have no option but to take the risk as they don’t have food and water. They are relying on God now and walking towards the railway station,” Venkatesh said. With tears in his eyes, he said Amit is his only son and if something happens to him he will not be able to live.

‘Evacuate us before we die here’

Over 600 Indian students are currently stranded in a university in Sumy, a city in north-eastern Ukraine, hoping that they will soon be evacuated as “continuous firing and bombing” by the Russian forces has left them completely terrified, one of the students said. “Not a single Indian student from Sumy State University, located close to the Russian border, has been evacuated so far,” Viraj Walde, who hails from Nagpur and is a fourth-year medical student, told PTI.

NDRF personnel load relief material on an Indian Air Force aircraft at Hindon airbase, to be flown to Romania for the evacuated Indian students, in Ghaziabad. Pic/PTI

“More than 600 Indian students are stuck here in Sumy university. The embassy has neither evacuated us nor given any assurance to that effect. Since the last five days, there has been continuous firing, shelling and bombing in the city,” he said.

“On behalf of all the students stuck in Sumy, I request the Indian government to evacuate us before anything unfortunate happens to us,” he said. Citing that their final exams were about to start from March 15, Walde said, “Before the war, he said, temporary advisories were given to the students and the university informed us that those having exams can wait.

700
Approx. no. of Indians in the group of refugees

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