From bunkers and hostel basements, students appeal for early evacuation from Ukraine
As the Russian invasion in Ukraine continued on the second day on Friday, some students from Pune were taken to bunkers where they are preparing to spend few days
Pune: As the Russian invasion in Ukraine continued on the second day on Friday, some students from Pune were taken to bunkers where they are preparing to spend few days.
Saurabh Isapure, an MBBS student from Pune and studying in Bukovinian State Medical University (BSMU) located in Chernivtsi city in western Ukraine, said, “We have returned to our university on Friday morning after a long journey yesterday, as the flights got cancelled. Since morning all the students are staying in the basement of the hostel due to fear of the war and now they have started the evacuation process. There is a large number of Indian students here in Chernivtsi city, so we are been taken in groups of 250 students. Each group has 160 girls and 90 boys, through luxury buses we are now been taken to Romania country. And from there, flights will be arranged for us, as informed by the Indian Embassy.”
Dnyanesh Ghadhve from Pune, who flew to Ukraine last year to pursue an MBBS course, said he had never imagined that he would have to stay in a bunker.
Ghadhve, 19, is one of over 1,000 Indian students stuck in Zaporizhzhia in southeastern Ukraine amid the Russian invasion. All students were taken to a bunker earlier in the day.
“Today we were taken into a bunker as part of a mock-drill. Now we are back in hostel,” he said. He also heard reports that there was a blast on a nearby army base, Ghadhve added. Asked if they have received any instructions about how to leave the country, he said they were told that they will be taken to Romania by bus and from there they could be flown back to India.
“ATMs in the city have run out of cash. People are buying essential supplies in bulk, so there are shortages at grocery stores too,” he said.
The Pune district administration has set up a control room and issued helplines for those who are stranded in the war zone. In 24 hours, details of 77 students who needed to be evacuated have been collected by the district authorities and it has been handed over to the Union government.
Sakshi Satish Pawar, a first-year MBBS student from Pune and studying at Zaporizhzhia State Medical University located in the southeastern part of Ukraine, said, “There is a huge impact on the studies of students and every one of us are frightened and want to return to our home country. All our booked flights have been cancelled as the airports are shut down, none of our ATM and Forex cards are working out. There are long queues outside ATM centres but no money is there. Yesterday, we had gone to supermarkets and malls and bought as many food items we can. But today the stocks are over, we do not have any choice than to wait for the evacuation process to happen.”
Maruti Dabhade, a Pune resident whose daughter Monika is pursuing MBBS in Odessa in southern Ukraine, said she and other students have already been moved to a bunker for safety.
“I spoke to her. She said they are sitting in a bunker. They have been promised that they would be taken to a safer place soon,” he said. Before moving into the bunker, his daughter had prepared chapattis and potato `bhaaji’ in large quantity and she is surviving on it now, he added.
Hanumant Khaire, another Pune resident whose daughter Siddhi is a fourth-year MBBS student in Odessa, said she and others were safe for the moment. “But the Union government should expedite the process of bringing them back,” he said. His daughter had booked a plane ticket out of the country for March 1, but flight operations across Ukraine are now suspended, he said.
“We have forwarded the list of stranded students to the Maharashtra government,” said an official from the district disaster management cell. The Pune administration on Thursday set up a control room for those stuck in Ukraine. At least 24 students from neighbouring Ahmednagar district are stuck in Ukraine, said the official of a private consultancy.
“We are constantly in touch with all the students. They have told us they are safe wherever they are,” said Mahendra Zaware Patil, CEO of Doctor EduCon, an overseas education consultancy through which these students went to Ukraine to pursue MBBS.
There are approximately 1,200 from Maharashtra like Saurabh currently in Ukraine and are stranded amid tension between Ukraine and Russia. Early on Thursday, Russia invaded Ukraine, triggering anxiety among family members of Indian citizens living or studying in the crisis-hit European country.