BELAGAVI/MANGALURU: About 120 Indian students in Kharkiv, who were not allowed to board a train to a border area near Poland on Thursday, walked to Pisochin, an urban settlement about 12km from the station, where they took shelter.
Several students, most of them enrolled at Kharkiv National Medical University, left their hostel in the wee hours of Wednesday, and walked over 12km with luggage to the railway station.
The students found the station overcrowded and Indian citizens were not given priority to board the train. Ukrainian citizens were allowed to board first, and women and children after them.
Rakshith Gani, a student from Belagavi, said: “We waited for another train, but that was delayed due to bombing. We had to take shelter at the metro station. We could not catch the second train too. Around then, we received the advisory asking us to leave Kharkiv immediately.”
Anand, another student, said: “We made several attempts to contact Indian embassy officials in Ukraine, but none responded to calls or messages. However, a Karnataka nodal officer told us accommodation was arranged in Pisochin and asked us to get there.”
The group decided to walk with whatever limited food and water they had.
In Pisochin, Ukrainian soldiers guided them to an apartment where several hundred Indian students were already camped.
“There is no food, and we are living on biscuits, chips and snacks,” Anand said. He urged embassy officials to arrange for food and water.
Rakshith said they have not received any update from the embassy on how they will be evacuated from Pisochin.
‘Trains suspended, can’t leave until there is a ceasefire’About 1,450 Indian students stuck in Kharkiv on Thursday gave up hope of boarding a train to reach the border until a ceasefire is called.
Skeletal train services were suspended from Kharkiv to Lviv on Wednesday midnight following an escalation in hostilities.
Amit Vaishar, Suman Vaishar, Shreyan Jain, and Praveen Ajareddy, all from Ranebennur taluk of Haveri district, were among the Indians still stranded in Kharkiv. There are about 250 students from Karnataka among the stranded Indians.
Speaking to TOI over the phone, the Haveri students said they walked about 22km, bracing extremely cold weather conditions to reach the Kharkiv railway station without adequate food and water. They hoped to catch a train but were crestfallen when they found services had been suspended.
The students from Karnataka have now shifted to a bunker on the outskirts of Kharkiv on advice from the Indian embassy. Amit said some 1,450 Indians are sheltered in the bunker.
“We are hoping against hope that the Indian government will prevail upon Ukraine and Russian governments and organise trains for us to travel from Kharkiv to Lviv, a city in eastern Ukraine along the Polish border,” Amit said.
Shreyan added: “The last train departed on Wednesday evening carrying a large number of women including many girl students from India but after that, they shut services.” Jain said: “We don’t have any connectivity now to reach the border. We may have to wait for some days until there is a a ceasefire or a lull.”
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