Nearly 600 Indian students from Ivano-Frankivsk National Medical University (IFNMU), located in the north-western city of Ivano in Ukraine, boarded seven buses and left for the Ukraine-Romania border on Saturday morning. According to the evacuation plan chalked by the External Affairs Ministry (EAM), they will cross the border on foot and will then fly to India in special Air India flights in the next few days.
Asad Mohammad Arif (21), a third-year MBBS student at the university, told The Indian Express over the phone that a group of over a 100 Indian students, which he is part of, had to walk for several kilometres before they could reach the Romanian border, where there were long queues. “We have been told that it will take five to six hours or more in the queue before we reach the immigration counter,” Asad said.
Harsh Goel, another student who hails from Uttar Pradesh, said that a total of seven buses left for the Romanian border on Saturday. “Three buses left the university campus at 9 am and four at noon. The traffic movement is slow as vehicles have lined up on the road leading to the border,” said Harsh.
A parent, Mahesh Gaikwad, is worried about his daughter Kadambari Gaikwad’s safe return. “I am constantly in touch with my daughter. I call maybe 20 times a day to ask whether everything is all right or not. I just want my daughter to safely return home,” he said.