Indian students studying in various universities in Ukraine are waiting for their turn either to be included in the evacuation procedure or to move to bunkers. Thousands of students, who are mostly in the country for their medical education, have been asked to stay alert and ready to move as soon as they get an intimation.
Meanwhile, evacuation procedure has started in the western parts of the country under the aegis of the Indian Embassy.
“The list of people who need to be evacuated in the first phase is being prepared and priority is given to first year students and girls,” said Abhimanyu, a third year student of Ivano Frankivsk National Medical University, around 650 km away from the capital Kyiv. Abhimanyu is a native of Koyilandy in Kozhikode.
“The attempt is to move to a neighbouring country, preferably Poland or Hungary, by road and then fly to India. Around 250 people will be moved immediately,” he said.
The students in the western part of the country are rather safe unlike the more than 5,000 Indian students in Kharkiv or the nearby Poltava, right on the Russian border where the war is intense.
The students in Kyiv have already moved to the bunkers and the embassy is trying to reach out to them to provide necessary help, said Abhimanyu, who has been volunteering to expedite the process.
Students in Zaporizhzhya State Medical University, near the border and around 550 km away from Kyiv, have mostly moved to the university hostels from their apartments and are ready to move at the slightest notice. “We have been asked to prepare a kit consisting of water, food, and other necessary items. We need to move to the bunkers if there is a siren,” said Liyana Fathima, a second year medical student at the university who hails from Vadakara. They are yet to get any information regarding evacuation though.
“At present we are safe and life seems to be normal outside. What is frustrating is the lack of information,” said Vyshak Manakayameethal, another second year student at Zaporizhzhia and hailing from Edacheri. Vyshak. He along with his friends had booked tickets to come home. But the closing down of the airports put a damper on their plans.
