200 students leave battle-torn Kyiv for Romanian border

Bhopal: The 200 students who had been sheltering in a school for three days have finally moved out of battle-ravaged Kyiv.With conditions worsening in the Ukrainian capital, they have moved towards the western borders — and into safety.One of them, Karan Kumar, told TOI that Indian embassy officials had told them to leave the school building as it was not safe for them. “We managed to reach the railway station this morning on our own. Take a moment to think of a situation where students are running for their lives to reach a railway station when bombs could explode anywhere,” said Karan.It was a 4km walk to the station. They set out in small groups of 4-5 so as not to attract attention.“We were jumpy all the while. We didn’t know if we would encounter Ukrainian or Russian soldiers on the way. Yesterday, around 50 students had tried to escape on their own but were turned back at gunpoint by soldiers,” said student Prateek Verma. A lucky few, who have made local friends during their stay in Ukraine, got a lift, but for most it was a tense trek.After reaching the station, the students were clueless where to go. “Our only objective is to leave Kyiv as the situation is worsening all the time. At the station, the biggest question was, where now,” said Karan.“Though the Ukraine government is running the train services for free, we didn’t know where to go. We have decided to go as close to the Romanian or Polish border as we can. We were told that the Romanian border is almost 1,200km from here,” Karan said. Around 200 Indian students were left on their own by Indian embassy officials for three days. They had arrived in Kyiv from Ternopil, where they study, on February 24, hoping to catch an evacuation flight home. Instead, bombs started falling on Kyiv and they had to rush to the Indian embassy for shelter.Students said they were given some support on February 24 and 25, but their problems worsened after that. “They told us to go to a bomb shelter, which was in a terrible condition. We cleaned it up and stayed there for a day. Then, we were asked to stay in a government school that was near the embassy. Since then, we have been living here,” Karan had said on Sunday.Then, they were told to evacuate the school building as it was not bombproof. “Embassy people told us that we’d have to leave the city by train. A few tried, but returned terrified after being put at gunpoint by soldiers,” said Prateek. As of Monday night, the students were on a train, headed for the Romanian border.