Around 120 Indian students in Kharkiv, who were not allowed to board a train in a border area near Poland on Thursday, went to Pisochin, an urban settlement about 12 km from the station, where they took shelter.
BELAGAVI/MANGALURU: Around 120 Indian students in Kharkiv, who were not allowed to board a train in a border area near Poland on Thursday, went to Pisochin, an urban settlement about 12 km from the station, where they took refuge.
Several students, most of whom are enrolled at Kharkiv National Medical University, left their hostels in the early hours of Wednesday, and traveled more than 12 km with luggage to the railway station.
The students found that the station was overcrowded and Indian nationals were not given priority to board the train. Ukrainian citizens were allowed to board first, and then women and children.
Rakshit Ghani, a student from Belagavi, said: “We waited for the second train, but it got delayed due to the bombing. We had to take shelter at the metro station. We couldn’t even catch another train. At the same time, we received an advisory asking us to leave Kharkiv immediately.”
Anand, another student, said: “We made several attempts to contact the Indian Embassy officials in Ukraine, but no one responded to calls or messages. However, a nodal officer from Karnataka told us that accommodation arrangements in Pisochin were made. and asked us to reach there.
The group decided that they would go with whatever limited food and water they had.
In Pisochin, Ukrainian soldiers guided him to an apartment where several hundred Indian students were already camping.
“There is no food, and we are living on biscuits, chips and snacks,” Anand said. He urged the embassy officials to make arrangements for food and water.
Rakshit said he had not received any update from the embassy on how he would be evacuated from Pisochin.
‘Trains suspended, cannot leave until ceasefire’
Around 1,450 Indian students stranded in Kharkiv gave up hope of boarding a train to reach the border until a ceasefire was announced on Thursday.
Skeleton train services from Kharkiv to Lviv were suspended at midnight on Wednesday following escalation of hostilities.
Amit Vaisher, Suman Vaisher, Shreyan Jain and Praveen Ajreddy from Ranebennur taluk of Haveri district were among the Indians stranded in Kharkiv. There are about 250 students from Karnataka among the stranded Indians.
Speaking to TOI over phone, the students of Haveri said that they walked about 22 km to reach Kharkiv railway station in extremely cold weather without enough food and water. They were hoping to catch a train, but they collapsed when services were suspended.
The students from Karnataka have now shifted to a bunker on the outskirts of Kharkiv on the advice of the Indian Embassy. Amit said that around 1,450 Indians are taking shelter in the bunker.
“We are anticipating against the expectation that the Indian government will dominate the Ukrainian and Russian governments and organize trains for us to travel from Kharkiv to Lviv, a city in eastern Ukraine along the Polish border,” Amit said.
Shreyan said: “The last train left India on Wednesday evening carrying a large number of women, including several girl students, but after that, they stopped the services.” Jain said: “We have no contact as of now to reach the border. We may have to wait for a few days until there is a ceasefire or peace.”
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