Why did Indian students stay back in Ukraine? Voices of the ones affected

Amid the continuous missile and artillery attacks by the Russian troops on the Ukrainian capital Kyiv, Indian students – Priyadharshini and her friends – had managed to board a train at Kyiv railway station on Tuesday to travel to Lviv, one of the western districts.

Carrying an Indian flag and minimum possible luggage, they walked to the railway station which is about 2.5 hours away and waited in the queue for hours together before boarding the train. Because of the continuous attacks, her journey has been delayed and she doesn’t know when she will reach the border. Priyadarshini is tired because of constant travel and insufficient food and water. She desperately wants to return to India and to the warmth of her parents.

Hundreds of Indian students like Priyadharshini are caught in the war-torn Ukraine and are pleading for assistance to the Indian government. However, back in India, many have accused them of ignoring the initial warnings of war and choosing to stay back.

“Who would want to stay back purposely knowing a war will break out. I had stayed in the basement of my apartment hearing explosion sounds. The basement would suffocate us and we did not have enough space even to stretch our legs. We have not slept or eaten properly in the last few days. Who would want to undergo all this? Definitely not me,” said Priyadharshini, who is a final year student of Kyiv Medical University.

“Until a week ago, the university had conducted only in-person classes and refused to conduct online classes despite multiple requests from us. The university kept telling us that the situation is normal in the country and there was absolutely no need for us to panic and leave Ukraine,” she said.

How can we not listen to the university who we completely trust, Priyadarshini said, explaining that as the KROK examination was scheduled on May 25 and the university was insisting they stay back and prepare for the examination. The students could receive their degree certificate only if they clear the KROK examination.

Also read: Russia-Ukraine war: How Indian med students’ dreams came crashing

In fact, the management of Ternopil National Medical University, where Nirdesh Dosi is studying second year MBBS, had gone to extent of making a video to convince both students and their parents that everything was fine in Ukraine.

“My parents had been constantly asking me to return to India as they were scared that the war would break any time. But, until last week, the situation was absolutely normal here. Our university was convincing us to stay back. They refused to conduct online classes till the last minute,” said Dosi, who managed to reach India on Wednesday after a four-day-long travel.

Dosi said they need more than 50% attendance to take up the semester examination. Then how could they afford to miss an entire semester? “Already we are studying the undergraduate course for six years and missing a semester would create further delay in our career,” he explained.

Gautham, a student from Kharkiv National Medical University, said that his university had threatened to impose a penalty of Rs 2,000 for every class missed. “We have about four to five classes in a day. If we are returning to India, we have to stay there at least for a month because we cannot afford to take continuous flight travels. In that situation, we would be forced to pay a hefty amount as fine for missing classes. That’s why we decided to stay back,” he explained.

“We are all aware that the relationship between Ukraine and Russia were not good. But we did not expect such a consequence. Though our parents were panicking, the university had been telling us that the situation is normal in Ukraine,” said another student from the university, Sridharan.

The university refused to conduct online classes as well. Sridharan said they would have been required to compensate for all the classes missed within a month and only then get the permission to take up the final examination.

Asked if the Indian Embassy in Ukraine had done anything useful for them, Sridharan said they had only issued notes advising the Indian nationals to return to India but did not insist we should return. “So, we thought the situation will not worsen,” he added.

The first advisory issued by the embassy on February 15 said, “In view of the uncertain situation in Ukraine, Indian nationals, particularly students whose stay is not essential, may consider leaving temporarily.”

Also read: Indian restaurant in Kyiv doubles up as safe house, feeds refugees

In the Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) that were released the next day, the embassy had advised the Indian nationals to book available commercial flight tickets. “The Ministry of external affairs is in discussion with the Ministry of Civil Aviation and various airlines for expanding flights between India and Ukraine. As of now, available flight connects are between Delhi and Kyiv and other connections are via Sharjah, Dubai, Almaty, Frankfurt and Doha,” it said.

Shortly after the announcement was made, many students had started booking their flight tickets to return home. As close to 20,000 Indian nationals including 18,000 students live in Ukraine, the flight tickets sold out almost immediately.

Again on February 20, the embassy had issued another note advising Indian nationals, whose stay is not deemed essential, to leave Ukraine temporarily and asked them to use commercial and charter flights for timely departure.

Also read: Operation Ganga: India evacuates 1,377 nationals from Ukraine in a day

It was only on February 22, the embassy in its note said, “Embassy is receiving a large number of calls asking about the confirmation of online classes by medical universities. As informed earlier, the Embassy is engaged with the respective authorities for streamlining of education process for Indian students. Students are advised, in the interest of their safety, to leave Ukraine temporarily rather than waiting for an official confirmation from universities.”

“As the tension was increasing, we were all looking for flight tickets. It was sold out for the next few days and even the available tickets were expensive. It costed about Rs 70,000. In spite of that, I booked a ticket on March 8 – the earliest available ticket -, but the war broke out two days after, on February 24,” Sridharan added.

Priyadharshini had booked a ticket on February 26 spending more than Rs 50,000. But, following the attack on Kyiv airport, she received a message from airlines saying her flight ticket was cancelled.