Struggling for basic needs, speed up evacuation: Maha students in Ukraine

As the battle for Ukrainian city Kharkiv rages on, many Indian students stranded in that city are struggling to get water and food which are fast becoming scarce and have appealed to the Indian government to expedite efforts to evacuate them.

At least three students from Maharashtra pursuing medicine in Kharkiv, located in northeast Ukraine, narrated how they had to stand in long queues for a can of water, drink soda, stay in bunkers, and risk their lives to fetch food items amid bomb blasts.

Hritik Bapulohar, a first-year medical student from Palghar, said he had reached Kharkiv city only a couple of months back.

"We can hear bomb explosions as they are taking place in a periphery of around 500 metres from where we are currently staying in Kharkiv. We are struggling even for basic needs. As many as 500 students are staying in two bunkers for the past four days. When the curfew was lifted some of them left the hostel. The situation is worsening fast. I appeal to the Indian government to evacuate us urgently," he told a Marathi news channel.

Bapulohar's senior Aishwarya Patil, who hails from Sangli in western Maharashtra, said drinking water stock is exhausted in their Kharkiv hostel.

"We are currently using soda water for drinking. After standing in queues stretching up to 2 km, we can get a can of five-litre water. Food prices are tripled since the war began. We are taking huge risks by stepping out to purchase food items. We are hiding as bomb blasts are happening here. We are eating pasta and other items after cooking them by ourselves. During nights, we are given an hour for cooking by authorities. We cook using mobile flashlights," she said.

Patil said their resources are getting exhausted.

"If evacuation is delayed it will become difficult even to maintain communication. We were told that the war between Russia and Ukraine will not take place, but it began. The Indian government should reach out to its Russian counterpart and get us out of here," she said.

Shivanjali Yadav, also from Sangli, said, "Students and other Indians are asked to stay in bunkers in Kharkiv even though we don't have much food and water with us."

"We are told to form groups of 20 members. But we don't know when we will be evacuated. Students are advised to move out from Poland but the distance between Kharkiv and the Poland border is 1,500 km, which is impossible to cross in this situation. Many of our friends are stuck in metros," Yadav said.

She said evacuation through the Russian border will be easier as the distance is comparatively shorter compared to Kharkiv.

Yadav claimed that they are not getting a proper reply from the Indian embassy.

"I appeal to our families that they should stay strong," she added.

Earlier in the day, the Centre decided to send four Union ministers to the neighbouring countries of Ukraine to coordinate the evacuation process of Indians, including students, still stuck in the war-torn country.

The Maharashtra government had on Sunday said that 72 students from the state were brought back from Ukraine.