Long walks, low rations, cold: Indian girls share horror tales from Ukraine

A weekend curfew was lifted in the Ukrainian capital of Kyiv on Monday morning, and the Indian Embassy there advised the stranded students in the city to head towards the western parts of the country, where evacuation is being carried out. Subsequently, many students in Kyiv started walking towards the railway station, carrying the Indian flag, to catch a train to the western districts.

“Weekend curfew lifted in Kyiv. All students are advised to make their way to the railway station for onward journeys to the western parts. Ukraine Railways is putting special trains for evacuations,” said the Indian embassy in Ukraine through its Twitter handle.

Also read: Evacuation on: 4 ministers to visit Ukraine’s neighbouring countries

The Embassy further directed the students to wear heavy winter clothes and carry a blanket and essential medicines. They are also advised to carry as much as cash as possible during their travel, and to travel in groups.

Pack-up and onward journey

Shortly after the announcement was made, Priyadharshini and her friends, who have been staying in the basement of their private apartment in Kyiv for the past three days, began packing their things for their journey. “We have not heard any explosion or gunshot since last night and curfew was lifted this morning, here,” she told The Federal over the phone. “So, as soon as we got the information from the Indian Embassy that it is safe to travel to the railway station, we started packing our things. We are carrying only what is necessary.”

Explaining that there are absolutely no transportation facilities available, she said they decided to walk to the railway station — a 2.5-hour journey. “We have no option but to walk. Because we think it is better than sitting in the basement and losing our hope. As we will not have a network once we step out of our apartment, we have already informed our parents,” she said.

Also read: Maharashtra students stuck in Ukraine send SOS; say resources about to exhaust

The girls attempted to book tickets online. But the scheduled trains are running full for the next couple of days. “We will have to travel only in the special trains which are free of cost for us. Even those would be available only for those who reach the station first. We don’t know when we will reach the station, when we will get a train to travel to a western district or where we will be travelling to and when we will reach India. We are plainly following the advice of the Indian Embassy here. They are our only hope,” she added.

The students are also running out of money as most of the ATMs are not functioning.

Trains are full

S Alagulakshmi, another student from Kyiv who has been taking shelter in the hostel basement of Bogomolets National Medical University with 650 other students, said: “We have been waiting for confirmation from the Embassy from 8:00 am after packing our bags. But, after a few hours, when we were all set to walk to the railway station, they asked us to go back to the hostel as there was no availability of trains. Now we have no option but to stay back till we receive more information.”

“We are also running out of rations — it will last us hardly another day,” she told The Federal, requesting the Indian government to take immediate steps to evacuate them out of the country.

Varsha, a student from Mykolaiv, where continuous attacks have been taking place, told The Federal: “Attacks have been taking place a few hundred metres away from our university hostel and Mykolaiv is about 1,200 km away from the Romanian border, which is the closest western border. We cannot think of walking till there. As the bridges are broken and there are absolutely no transportation facilities including bus and trains, we request the Indian Embassy to make some arrangements to transport us to the borders.”

Freezing temperatures, little to eat

Meanwhile, several students have been travelling on their own to the western borders of the country, and waiting there for hours together without being able to cross the border. They are said to be waiting in freezing temperature without sufficient food and water.

On Monday, the fifth flight evacuating Indian nationals reached Delhi from Bucharest in Romania, carrying 249 passengers. So far, over 1,000 Indians from Ukraine have been repatriated.

More than 400 students are stuck in the Petro Mohyla Black Sea National University hostel in Mykolaiv. The areas around the hostel were damaged in the war and explosions rendered the bridges and railway station unusable.

Another student from Mykolaiv, Aishwarya, told The Federal: “The Indian Embassy has asked us, through our agents, to pack our stuff and be ready for travel. They have asked us to carry only documents, food and money. If everything goes right, we will be traveling out of the city tonight.

“We don’t know where we will be travelling to or how long it will take or when we will reach India. We are clueless and helpless.”