HUBBALLI: Indian students, studying at Ukraine’s second largest city Kharkiv, are distressed on Sunday after Russian forces occupied the city. Ironically they are not getting any support from the Indian embassy and they are forcing the Indian government to evacuate them.
Ten students of Haveri, six from Ballari, four from Dharwad, three from Koppal and two each from Gadag and Uttara Kannada districts are in Ukraine to pursue graduation and postgraduation in medicine. Most of them are studying in V N Karazin Kharkiv National University and Kharkiv National Medical University in Kharkiv city.
Speaking to TNIE, Shivani Madiwalar, who is studying 4th-year medicine at Kharkiv National Medical University said from Saturday afternoon war has started in Kharkiv city itself and they are hearing only bomb blasting sounds till late night. The same sound has been heard since early Sunday morning too. They have not slept and all are in a state of dread and spending the entire day in an underground metro station.
“Saturday afternoon Israel bus came and evacuated its students from the war-hit city. Why can't the Indian government, which has good relations with Russia, do this? When we called the Indian embassy in Ukraine, they cut the phone call when asked about evacuation. From Sunday morning calls are not connecting”, she said.
Kharkiv is just about 40 km away from the Russian border and located in war-hit eastern Ukraine. Including hundreds of Kannadigas, there are about 16,000 Indian students studying medicine. Soon after the war started, they approached the Indian embassy in Ukraine, but they were not getting any response. The Indian government is only evaculating western Ukraine students where there is no war.
Haveri student Ganesh M S in Kharkiv said, they have been staying in the metro station from the last two days which is totally packed. There is no food and water supply here, they are eating what they brought from their flats. “We lost all hopes from this government, we are looking forward to the Indian government to evacuate them and bring them back to their native”, he said.
Parents here are worried a lot about their kids and are approaching district administration requesting to force the government to bring back their children from Ukraine. The district administrations have opened helplife for local parents, whose children are studying in Ukraine, and collecting information.
While countries like Poland and Hungary have welcomed fleeing Ukrainians, some foreign citizens seeking to leave Ukraine have reported difficulties at the Polish border.
An Indian volunteer in Poland said Sunday some Indian citizens seeking to flee Ukraine into Poland are stuck at the border leading into Medyka, Poland, and unable to cross.
The Indian Embassy in Kyiv said Sunday that Indian citizens are being evacuated from Ukraine to Romania and Hungary.
But some have arrived at the border with Poland apparently unaware of this and are stuck.
Ruchir Kataria, the volunteer, told The Associated Press that the Indians seeking to cross at Medyka were told in broken English: "Go to Romania."
But they had already made long journeys on foot to the border, and have no way to reach the border with Romania hundreds of kilometers away.
Some other Indian citizens who managed to cross into Poland have been denied a place to stay in shelters set up by Polish authorities and charities, and were told that the help was reserved for Ukrainians, according to Kataria's wife, Magdalena Barcik, who is working with him to help those fleeing.
(With AP Inputs)